Workplace Engineering

Interesting note from Web Worker Daily

Workplace Trends: The End of Cubicle Dwelling?: “While outsourcing isn’t new, the rapid increase in the number of remote workers is. According to WorldatWork, ‘the number of employee telecommuters in the U.S. increased 39 percent, from 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008.’ Businesses are actively seeking to embrace remote working as it lowers overheads — see Simon’s post on GigaOM Pro, ‘Enabling the Web Working Revolution’ (subscription required). Anecdotally, I seem to see more and more people working remotely from home offices and coffee shops.”

(Via WebWorkerDaily.)

How 18th Century Technology Could Down an Airliner | Autopia | Wired.com: “The air speed indicators on the doomed plane included a Pitot tube, named for Henri Pitot, the French engineer who in 1732 created an instrument that could measure the velocity of a fluid. Grossly oversimplified, airspeed is determined by measuring the difference between ram air pressure coming into the Pitot tube and static air pressure at altitude. If anything blocks a Pitot tube or static port, the measurement will be inaccurate and jeopardize the safety of the flight. “

(Via .)

Management Rev Ed by Peter F. Drucker

rating: 4 of 5 stars
It took me until my late thirties to rediscover Drucker. I’m listening to this on my commute to work in the mornings…the unabridged version is 19 hours long and is great to get me through my morning drive.



Drucker is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand management and his early works (whether updated or not) are absolutely pertinent and he really boils the fluff down to key learnings that cut to the core of what management is e.g. a managers fundamental role is to:



1 - Set Objectives



2 - Organize



3 - Motivate and Comunicate



4 - Measurement



5 - Develop People



Just an incredible reference and guide!








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Interesting post on alliances in Harvard Business Blog How to Strike Effective Alliances and Partnerships. Mainly directed towards major corporate alliances, but I thought the eight I’s in We apply equally to any strategic relationship with a vendor partner too:

Individual excellence.

Importance.

Interdependence.

Investment.

Information.

Integration.

Institutionalization.

Integrity.

(Via HarvardBusiness.org.)

This made me laugh…

Hit ‘Em with a Hammer (and Other Presentation Tips): “never have a large coffee, a prune Danish, and a bran muffin before delivering an hour-long presentation. “

I’m intending to deliver my next presentation in a coat closet too. Then the cats will be impressed that the dog is standing in line outside for my standing room only event.

Been having a discussion this week with a couple of Certified Project Managers about the difference between Project Management and successfully managing projects. One of my biggest frustrations is the idea that following the PMBOK will result in a successful project outcome.

Project Management is an academic and professional discipline with a set of specific tools. Being knowledgeable and certified will not necessarily result in a well managed project. People that manage projects effectively understand that at its core success requires:

- A start and a finish,

- Setting Objectives,

- Organizing,

- Motivating and Communicating,

- Measuring and

- Developing People

Managing a project successfully requires understanding the first bullet and fulfilling the remaining ones effectively and efficiently. Project Management tools and techniques can be used, but the most sophisticated work-breakdown structure or GANT chart only has value when completed in the pursuit of Drucker’s roles of management.

Another sad demographic and economic trend reported in the WSJ.

Today, more and more children are being raised by their grandparents. These grandparents provide a crucial safety net, allowing children whose parents can’t provide for them to remain in families, instead of winding up as wards of the state. But as the recession hits “grandfamilies,” that safety net is under stress.

Delivered this to the Chicago Corenet Chapter, March 2009. Still needs a lot of work, but the audience was very kind.

THE DOLLARS AND SENSE OF CHANGE. from Burnett Communications on Vimeo.

What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I bought the audio book and think I need to by it in print too. The whole idea of turning your business/organization/industry into a platform is incredibly compelling. Kind of wish I’d read it before starting my business.


View all my reviews.

I’ve been missing my Fracking Friday routine now that Battlestar Galactica is finished. Clearly Robert Strohmeyer is missing it too:

10 Business Lessons From ‘Battlestar Galactica’ - Business Center - PC World

Of Strohmeyer’s 10 lessons from BG, this one resonated the most with me:

“3. Some things can’t be outsourced.
Pretty much every terrible event that befalls humanity in Galactica is the direct result of an overzealous push toward outsourcing human labor to robots. The business lesson here is clear: While outsourcing may save short-term costs, outsourcing the wrong jobs can ultimately destroy your business, the economy, or your species.”

One of the tenets I’ve followed during a career of working in heavily outsourced environments is that you can’t outsource your problems either. The twelve colonies were pretty fractured and instead of tackling the issues befalling their society they outsourced the labor instead.

This is one of the great risks of outsourcing generally. Once you’ve outsourced it you’ve to a large extent hidden it too. If your processes don’t work and your teams are dysfunctional it won’t be any better after you’ve ceded control and it will be a whole lot more difficult to get inside and solve them before like the Cylons, those broken systems come back with vengeance.

Of course you can do something about it. If you are going to outsource, make sure you understand what you are outsourcing and the full context. If you can, solve your problems before you outsource. If you can’t, at least tell the outsource partner and make them a part of the solution.

(Via: Guy Kawasaki)