Employee Recognition

Employee Recognition is a topic that excites different emotions for different reasons. Its simultaneously a cost (for the finance team), more work (for shared services team), a reward, an opportunity to appreciate - to show that the organization cares, a morale elevator (all for the employee) and if not implemented well, an attrition alert in the works (for the organization).

Given that its not easy, whats commendable is that organizations are not shy of recognition programs, recognize their importance. Plus, counter-intuitive that it may seem to add to expenses during tough economic times, they are likely to be most effective at such time.

The highly referenced Maslow's Theory of Motivation - Hierarchy of Needs gives specific areas to focus as part of this initiative. Even if you don't like the hierarchy as is, you would probably agree that the coverage of different areas of needs would be useful to address. I see that Social and Esteem needs are generally where a positive impact can be affected by the workplace, Safety needs are better addressed by government, while Physiological and Self-Actualization needs would be best left to the individual.

I found a good summary of the importance of employee recognition here, various good practices and DO's here and here and some DONT's here.

Having participated in such initiatives in different organization in both awarding as well as recieving capacity, here are some of my learnings on this front :

- Have employees recommend their co-workers, this lends maximum credibility to the process
- Make the initiative inclusive, recognize many people for different reasons.
- Have different components to the rewards like cash, memento and felicitation and of course the most important 'human touch', instead of just one like cash or a memento.
- The overall tone of the initiative should be celebration of talent in the organization rather than that of a competetion. This will give on-going positive vibes to the organization.
- Frequent small events (say quarterly) are preferred over one big one (yearly), although if both can be done every year, would be really great.

Do you have such an initiative at your workplace ? Talk to your HR folks to find out.

Factors that drive Excellence of Project Delivery and Quality

The top 3 factors driving delivery excellence are :

1. Capacity : The Capabilities and Competency of Human Resources, i.e. their talent and experience with the organization as well as their attitude. So choose the right team.
2. Timeliness : Balancing Requirements and Schedule constraints to set the right customer expectation and deliver according to plan, on time.
3. Communication: Channelizing the right information at the right time to all stakeholders and enabling team work towards end goal - delivery.

The top 3 factors driving quality excellence are :

1. Material Resources : Availability of the right tools in the right amount for optimizing the time and improving on the quality of output
2. The Quality Management System : Process readiness and 'aware' implementation that doesnt take way from productivity but resonates with organizational rythm.
3. Learning Culture: A culture of becoming better everyday actively promoted and rewarded by the organization.

Notice that these 6 factors are interlinked for example a Learning Culture will positively impact the Competency of the team. And Communication is the one key factor that will impact how all others combine to become more than the sum of parts.

Success and the Jigsaw Puzzle

Wikipedia defines thus : A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture.

I think Success too is a jigsaw puzzle and if one wants to be blessed by it, one needs to become one or more of the tesselating pieces. Its important to note that the pieces are typically numerous, small, often oddly shaped, and interlocking. Most significantly, each has small part of the final picture on it, and every single one contributes equally.

Project Success is no different. The subject of the project is dispersed amongst the many pieces that, when put together, lead to its completion. Functions such as Planning, Requirements, Finance and Marketing are the pieces towards the outside edge and those such as Engineering, Intellectual Property, Quality, and Delivery are the pieces towards the inside edge of the big picture.

And, the most important Pieces are actually People. One or more persons on the project has one or more pieces as his baby. That's his agenda to drive. And only when everyone does his bit well, emerges the big picture - Project Success.

Wishing readers a Happy and Successful 2009 :)

The hidden rules that help Project Management

In his book Why Does Software Cost So Much?, Tom DeMarco states that software organizations have clearly articulated and widely known rules to help manage projects better, such as :

Keep quality high
Leave time for unanticipated problems
Respond to user needs
Work hard
Keep promises

He says though, that organizations 'think' these rules are primary guides to their decision making. However he says there are Hidden Rules too :

False Precision Of Estimates : There are tolerances and buffers built into estimates at all levels but what is most ironic is that no one, and especially not 'management', will take a range of numbers for an answer ! Ever tried your boss with 'About 17 to 71 days' ? :)

Power Shifting : A reference to power play during corporate consolidation and its effects on the project and its success.

Anger: Ideally there should be no emotions as far as work is concerned but a large part of work is centered around interactions with other humans. And 'fear' is the most seen on display, mostly disguised as anger.

Fat: Another irony - 'managing people is not by itself enough to justify managers' salaries' ! Makes you wonder why the word 'management' entered the English dictionary. This unpleasant truth makes most managers go out of the way to 'add value' and leave people unmanaged. A fit case of 'Yeh Dil Maange More', no ?

Denial : What is expected is 'can-do management' and any expressed 'realism' is shouted down with a chorus of 'loser' and 'defeatist', as well orchestrated as the 'two legs good, four legs bad' refrain ! That leaves little room for 'risk management' says he. Cheerleaders are not restricted to football and cricket it seems.

This is just a summary and one must read the the book for more details - it has more such great insights and is a very useful read for the Project Manager. The work may be dated, but the content is relevant and your learning can be as fresh.

Managing Contractual Risks on Projects

As a Manager, one is involved in projects right from the stage where contracts are being signed. While a Project Manager cannot be a lawyer himself, and is expected to have organizational support from the legal angle, here is an excerpt that serves as a good high level checklist to Managers :


Every contract has risks that must be reviewed from the perspective of protecting the state's assets and interests. This document provides you with guidelines and tools to help you manage those risks when you contract on behalf of the state. An inherent part of contract management is to:

1. Evaluate the risks involved;
2. Decide whether to avoid, transfer, or accept the risks; and
3. Implement appropriate risk transfer and/or risk financing mechanisms.

Read the contract thoroughly and anticipate events or situations that could happen within the scope of work outlined. Ask yourself:

1. Who are all the parties involved?
2. What kind of work is being done?
3. What type of accidents or losses could occur?
4. What is the worst-case scenario in terms of financial loss and/or injury to persons or property?
5. Are the responsibilities for the risks appropriately placed with those in the best position to control them?
6. What is each party's ability to manage the risks and absorb the losses?
7. Is the contract legal and enforceable?

Within the contract, risk transfer is accomplished through a combination of indemnification, hold harmless, and waivers of subrogation clauses. Insurance is commonly required as a means of providing the financial support to back the indemnitor's obligation to hold the indemnitee harmless.

These are generic of course, and appropriate customizations will be applicable for respective kinds of projects. Here is another nice article on the various aspects of contractual risks.

Making the Most of Meetings

Almost everyone has heard satirical references to meetings as events at which the minutes are kept while the hours are lost ! If you are a manager of any kind and if you feel the same about some of the meetings you attend, and you do not subscribe to the advice given here, which is evidently in lighter vein, then you would also not wish others, who may or may not be present at your meetings, to describe them with satirical references.

To make the most of your meetings, follow these simple rules:

1. Do not hold the meeting if an important stakeholder will not be present, a prerequisite to the meeting is not done or if you have prior information that will make the meeting ineffective. Reschedule.
2. Give advance notice to the Attendees by preparing an Agenda and sending out the Meeting Invitation - give sufficient time for Attendees to do their homework based on the Agenda.
3. Ensure that all Required Attendees have accepted the Invitation - if not, follow up using different means of communication and secure the acceptance. Else reschedule.
4. Ensure all resources required for the meeting, like the conference room and the projector, are available.
5. Start the meeting on time.
6. Stick to the Agenda and if all Agenda Items are done discussing before time, use the remaining time to discuss any other relevant topic. If there are no relevant topics, close the meeting before time.
7. During the meeting, keep a strict watch on elapsed time and use your authority as the organizer of the meeting to declare time-outs on discussions, in the interest of finishing on time. If a time-out occurs, either use your prerogative to conclude that particular discussion by making a decision by choosing the best alternative available at that time, or ask concerned members to do more study offline and schedule the discussion at a follow up meeting.
8. Take notes during the meeting - these include Issues discussed and Decisions reached.
9. To make any meeting effective, it is vital to note all the Action Items along with the Owner and Expected Closure Date of each.
10. Circulate the notes from the meeting - called Minutes of Meeting - to all Attendees as well as any other relevant persons, for their reference and action.
11. After the meeting, follow up with the owners of Action Items about their completion and closure. If the meeting reccurs at regular intervals, it is a good practice to begin every meeting with a review of past Action Items.
12. It is good practice to make all the documented 'Minutes' of a single project archived and available online at a central location (like the project wiki) for future reference.
13. Use a good tool to make this whole process as efficient as possible. One such tool is Yet Another Meeting Assistant (YaMA), an open source and free tool that I have written and use regularly. There are many others, take your pick.

Making good Career decisons by Measuring Job Satisfaction

With the onset of the annual appraisal cycle, in most organizations, around this time of the year, the harried Engineer starts thinking of Job Satisfaction. It becomes fashionable to consider a 'switch'. More often than not, decisions are made in a baised, often emotional frame of mind that overlooks a comprehensive approach to measure and evaluate.

There are different simple and complex models out there, like the Likert Scale, but I suggest this simple technique of identifying the criteria, assigning weights to them, and evaluating current job as well as new opportunities in terms of a weighted average. Done sincerely, it is bound to help a person make a better decision.

	Criterion 1	…	Criterion 'n'
Weightage	Weight 1		Weight 'n'	SUM(Weight 1 ..'n')
Current Job	Rating	…	Rating	Weighted Average
New Job 1	Rating	…	Rating	Weighted Average
…	…	…	…	…
New Job n	Rating		Rating	Weighted Average

where,

• The Criteria are the different tests or considerations on which evaluation should be done.
• The Weightage denotes the relative importance assigned to a Criterion, relative to the other Criteria.
• The Rating can be (say) on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 denotes least satisfactory and 5 denotes most satisfactory.
• The Weighted Average is obtained by adding the product (multiplication) of respective Ratings and their Weights and dividing this SUM by Total Weight.

An example:

	Technology	Money	Geography	People	Infrastructure	Work Culture
Weightage	20	15	5	30	15	15	100
Current Job	3	4	3	5	4	3	3.9
New Job	5	3	3	3	3	2	3.25

The weights in the example reflect the importance I give to different criteria. For example I give maximum importance to the people I am working with - their competence, their attitude, and moral values, in no particular order.

The analysis, like the one in the example gives best advice - data driven and unbiased. One should also keep in mind the adage about the bird in hand being more than two in the bush, in the sense that whatever has been promised at the New Job is likely to undergo certain correction once the New Job is actually undertaken. This knowledge should reflect in the ratings for that job.