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Management and Related Notes

Rev: 01 Feb 2003.

Introduction

A set of notes about books I've read that are applicable to managing and leveraging technology innovations. I use AvantGo to store these on my Palm. See also CSD Problem Solving.

Medical Economics

Creativity and Problem Solving

Sutherland and others

1. Examine the symmetry of the problem, and you may find the symmetry of the solution.
2. Build a taxonomy of the problem and you may discover new combinations to explain
   • divide problem into features
   • make a each feature a dimension or axis
   • organize dimensions into triplets (vary the triplets)
   • each triplet forms a box: explore the box
3. Identify categories of the problem -- explore the inverse.
4. Attach the most generic and expansive version first ..  A simpler version ... A special case ...
5. Describe the problem aloud to another person
6. Read papers, attend lectures on unrelated subjects.
7. Sleep, exercise.

Common Cognitive Errors

(from a review in the Economist, 1999)

• irrational aversion to regret
• cognitive dissonance: belief clearly contradicted by evidence, usually longheld
• anchoring: external suggestions have inappropriate influence
• status quo bias: bigger gambles to maintain status quo than to acheive it in the first place
• compartmentalise: tend to limit choices by premature assignment to a category often with little basis
• overconfidence in one's answers
• representativeness heuristic: treat events as representative of some well known class in the absence of sufficient data. Tendency to see patterns when none exist.
• availability heuristic: focus excessive attention on details that are close to hand, rather than on the big picture
• magical thinking: attributing to one's own actions something that had nothing to do with them
• quasi-magical thinking: behaving as if one believes ones thoughts can influence events, even when one knows they can't
• hindsight bias: once something happens, overestimate ability to predict it
• memory bias: tendency to falsely think one has predicted things that happened
• emotional bias: cutting off the nose to spite the face

Deception

From cognition studies ..

Detecting Deception

• ignore facial expressions (unless speaker is unobserved)
• watch
  • hand gestures, picking, fidgeting
  • blink rate and pupil size (both increase)
  • increased hesitancy, shorter answers, delays in speech and answer, increased pitch
  • increased time to plan response
  • increased use of negative statement formulations

Deceiving (how to fake sincerity)

• direct gaze
• smile
• stable frontal posture
• speak promptly and answer questions promptly
• avoid "mystifying" speech such as passive corrections and diffused responsibility

The Innovator's Dilemna

Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma, June 1997. Harvard Business School Press; ISBN: 0875845851

(Need to locate my notes)

The Logic of Failure

Dietrich Dorner, Rita Kimber (Translator), Robert Kimber (Translator), The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations. September 1997, Perseus Pr; ISBN: 0201479486

(Need to locate my notes)

Mindfulness

Ellen J. Langer, Mindfulness April 1990, Perseus Pr; ISBN: 0201523418

• avoid entrapment by category (a door vs. a 3'x7' stretcher)
• beware automatic cognitive behaviors
• avoid premature cognitive commitment -- choosing the wrong context for a problem (= prejudice)
• strategies
  • identify categories, then try changing them (congenital, traumatic ...)
  • look for automatic behaviors and attempt the inverse
  • identify and vary operative perspective/context
  • vary assumptions (trite)

Misc

Some from: How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization by Jeffrey J. Fox  1 Ed edition (October 1998) Hyperion Press; ISBN: 0786864370. Others are diverse sources, including Scott Adams.

• It is very hard to solve the unidentified problem.
• A good solution to the wrong problem may be worse than no solution for the right problem.
• Scott Adams has a point. In a large corporation ideas can be threatening. If they are good ideas they bring change, and change will help some and hurt others. If they are bad ideas they waste resources. It is unwise for someone who lives by creating things and ideas to linger long in a large corporation, unless they work in R&D.
• Stay visible. The worst thing someone can do is to be invisible. Do presentations, go to meetings. Be known. Feed the network.
• If you find yourself left out of the "in-crowd" working with your boss, and you don't know why, then you need to find a new boss as gracefully as possible. The likelihood of this being corrected is low.
• In the modern corporation performance reviews are of limited use. A negative or neutral review means that you have already been terminated. A positive or strongly positive review may be good news, or it may mean nothing. In the absence of hard evidence of approval, assume that your position is highly vulnerable. Hard evidence of approval includes:
  • Significant wage increases (eg. not the 3-5% increases associated with a good performance review).
  • Large stock option grants (beyond the good performance review).
  • Increasingly important assignments where failure will harm the company, together with a willingness to offload less "critical" tasks to other persons. (Caveat: employers may judge tasks you consider critical as non-critical; this is an ominous sign.)
  • A well placed office.
• Know your Myers-Briggs personality type, and its associated strengths and weaknesses. Know or estimate the types of the persons you meet with or work with. As a first approximation, use these types to guide interactions. Eg. If dealing with pragmatic, detailed thinkers, then limit ideas and stay on track. Provide an outline and key milestones, then let detail/focused/sensory persons fill in the steps. If you are a 'big picture'/innovator/inventor, then use pragmatists to stay on track.
• Very few people are comfortable with debate, or are able to change their thinking. If you disagree with someone it is generally safer to be noncommital. If that someone is a manager, and you believe they are making an important error that cannot be ameliorated or averted, then look for another job.
• Frequent and arduous business travel is a peculiar American passion. It is where networks are created and future business relationships nurtured.
• MARTIN M LOMASNEY "Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink."

Reengineering The Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution

Introduction and Citation

Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering The Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. Harper Collins 1993.

I wrote up these notes when I was reading Hammer and Champy's book. They're reprinted here for public use. The notes are my own, and may bear no resemblance to the book. My comments are in italics, they focus on primary care. Hammer and Champy's ideas are not all original, and many people (myself included) disagree with their analysis of the costs and benefits of their particular approach to reengineering. Indeed, since I put these notes together (1996) reengineering has fallen from grace. I still think there's something to it however.

Reengineering Notes

Key Characteristics of Reengineering

• processes: process oriented (most important component
• fundamental
• radical
• dramatic
• When I read this book, I felt that the "technocentric" reorganization of work was common to all of their successful examples. That is, changing work to organize it around inflexible but powerful technologies. It is an unfortunate truth that we humans are far more flexible than our technologies. Change for us is painful, but it is possible if the rewards are sufficient.

Themes for Reengineering

• process orientation
• ambition
• rule-breaking
• creative use of information technology: IT enables change

Characteristics of Reengineered Business Processes

• several jobs combined into one
• workers make decisions
• the steps in the process are performed in a natural order
• processes have multiple versions
• work is performed where it makes the most sense
• checks and controls are reduced
• reconciliation is minimized: reduce "accounting" procedures.
• a case manager provides a single point of contact. example: the primary care physician
• hybrid/centralized operations are prevalent. (I'm not really convinced by their arguments for this point.)

Characteristics of the Reengineered Workplace

• work units change from functional deparments (gastroenterology) to process teams (family practice).
• jobs change, from simple tasks to multidimensional work (a professional)
• roles change: "empowerment". and, inevitably, power shifts, ergo depowerment
• job preparation changes: from training to education.
• focus of performance measures and compensation shift from activity to results (what if the results are very hard to measure?)
• advancement criteria change -- from performance to ability. (How does one measure "ability"in clinical practice? By board scores? I don't think so ... By outcomes?)
• values change -- from protective to productive.
• organizational structures change -- from hierarchical to flat (Here again I'm not sure how well this applies to all settings, or how fundamental this is to the reengineering process. Does "equal" mean equally replaceable?)
• executives change -- froms scorekeepers to leaders

Approaching a Reengineering Project

1. Identify problem processes, other problems, challenges, puzzles (use standard systems analysis techniques). Look for known broken processes or symptoms of broken processes
   • data redundancy, rekeying, extensive information exchange
   • inventory, buffers, system slack
   • high ratio of checking-control to value added
   • rework and iteration
   • complexity, accretions, special cases
2. identify/note technologies: computers, systems
3. apply "inductive thinking"
   • recognize a "solution" (computer/systems technology) and seek the problem it might solve.
   • identify longstanding "rules" or limitations that a new technology can now break.
   • want to keep up on latest technologies, and evaluate opportunities. This is what has been long criticized as a solution in search of a problem!
4. start with feasible projects
5. Benchmark from the world's best, not the industry's best.

Understanding Processes

• Most companies have ten or so principal processes.
• Begin by understanding what the processes's customer does with the process output. What are the customer's real requirements? How does this compare to their self-identified needs?
• Learn the what and why rather than the how. The how will change.

How to Fail at Reengineering: Common Mistakes

• Try to fix a process rather than change it.
• Don't focus on business process.
• Ignore everything except process redesign.
• Neglect people's values and beliefs.
• Be willing to settle for minor results
• Quit too early.
• Place prior constraints on the definition of the problem and the scope of the reengineering effort.
• Allow existing corporate cultures and management attitudes to prevent reengineering from getting started.
• Try to make reengineering happen from the bottom up -- without strong top-level support.
• Assign someone who doesn't understand reengineering to lead the effort.
• Skimp on the resources devoted to reengineering.
• Bury reeningeering in the middle of the corporate agenda.
• Dissipate energy across many reengineering projects.
• Atttempt to reengineer when the CEO is two years from retirement.
• Fail to distinguish reengineering from other business improvement programs.
• Concentrate exclusively on design.
• Try to make reengineering happen without making anyone unhappy. (I think they could have said more here about identifying winners/losers and considering compensation for "losers"
• Pull back when people resist making reengineering's changes.
• Drag the effort out.

Meetings

How to make meetings work, Doyle and Straus, the new interaction method.

This book was written in 1976, which is why it has some anachronistic comments: typewriter instead of laptop, polaroid instead of digital photograph, secretaries including individual! secretaries , Japan as a shining example, etc. All the same, people who do well at meetings work something like this book advises.

1. General rules
   1. Separate Content (what - problem, topic, agenda) from Process (how - approach, method procedure)
      1. group must agree on common problem and common process
   2. Every meeting (>4-5) needs a traffic cop
      1. ensure open and balanced conversation
      2. protect individuals from personal attach
   3. Every participant should have one role (observer, contributor, traffic cop)
      1. it is very hard for most people to both manage a meeting AND be a major contributor
      2. if people change roles, they often must do so formallly
         And it usually STILL doesn't work.
         
2. Essential roles
   1. facilitator
      1. first agenda item is a good way to setup the facilitator role and the meeting direction
      2. encourage agreement on content (agenda item) and process (how to deal with it)
      3. let group build the agenda, don't overspecify
      4. keep reins loose at first
      5. support the recorder
      6. special techniques
         1. allow silence
         2. refer to group memory (record)
         3. talk little
         4. be positive and encouraging
         5. if there's any mirror surface, watch how you look
   2. recorder
      1. clearly legible record of key ideas on large sheets of paper about the room
      2. support the facilitator
      3. if want to contribute ideas
         The authors imply the recorder can't really say very much and that it's effectively the most "junior" role. So it's not a great role for someone who's supposed to be coming up with a lot of content!
         1. formally take off "recorder hat"
      4. if need to distribute a record of discussions
         jf: Assemble digital photos of paper sheets into PDF document, distribute PDF or print (use 4-up if available on a high resolution printer)
   3. manager/chairperson
      1. set ground rules and constraints
      2. define objectives and goals
         these may be redefined however
      3. manager decides if consensus cannot be reached
         since manager is part of consensus, they can always get their way, but obviously this is a "last resort"
      4. delegate meeting setup and followup to staff
      5. develop process and content agenda
         circulate agenda at least one day in advance
      6. attendees and role assignmentsß
      7. decide meeting type
   4. group member
      
3. Techniques
   
   1. record ideas without credit
      give group ownership
   2. define constraints
   3. global techniques
      See also cognitive science notes.
      1. avoid arguing for one's own views
         but do try to argue for other's views, especially if you don't agree with them
      2. when stalemate occurs, look for next most acceptable alternative
      3. be suspicious of quick agreement
      4. avoid conflict-reducing techniques (vote, coin toss, etc)
         strive for group agreement
4. Task Forces
   1. someone must accurately represent every point of view
   2. if consensus cannot be reached then produce summary document
      1. problem definition
      2. analysis
      3. alternatives (with advantages and disadvantages)
      4. majority and minority position statement (option)
         
5. Meeting Types
   1. problem-solving
   2. decision-making
   3. planning
   4. reporting and presenting
   5. feedback
      
6. Meeting types by size
   1. 2-7
      1. pass around facilitator hat
      2. pass around recorder role and use a facilitator/recorder
      3. as approach 6-7 participants formalize roles
         
   2. 7-15
      allegedly the ideal size for problem-solving, decision making
      1. allocate facilitator and recorder
   3. 15-30
      1. too large for most useful meetings
      2. usually must break-up into subgroups
   4. 30+
      beyond scope of this book
      
7. Tools
   1. Generating Alternatives (problem solving techniques)
      some of these are my own notes
      1. state the problem as a question, avoid yes/no formulation
      2. lasso for definitions
         1. write out problem
         2. circle key terms and ask for definition
      3. is/is not
         1. list facts that are true about the problem
         2. list facts that are not true
      4. break down into sub problems
      5. shift from top-down to bottom-up analysis
         when get stuck in one direction, change to another
      6. identify the general class of problem or a similar problem in a different domain
         humans seem to have special "affordances" or cognitive techniques for solving problems that are expressable as social interactions
         1. ask what others have done
      7. brainstorming
         lots of ideas, no criticism
         1. get set: extra recorders, audio recordings
         2. set time limit (next 7 minutes ...)
         3. set objective (75 ideas)
         4. energize the group, watch body language
         5. leader remains neutral
         6. help recorder
         7. encourage, compliment, have ways ready to change parameters, stimulate more ideas
         8. make a clean ending
      8. force-field analysis
         1. visualize boundary between sustaining forces (stop problem from worsening) and restraining forces (stop it from getting better)
      9. balance premature evaluation of ideas and premature fixation (commitment)
         1. if a solution seems to be widely accepted suggest everyone join in attacking it to see how well it stands up
      10. checkerboard approach or morphological analysis
          1. identify two axis (functionality vs. components, products vs. sales, services vs. pricing)
          2. cells (intersections of row and column) are design possibilities
      11. cutting and moving around
          especially useful for sorting and sequencing problems
          1. write down names of entities on cardboard
          2. rearrrange
   2. Evaluation
      1. Explicit criteria and alternatives are expressed and rearranged iteratively
      2. Generating criteria is similar to generating problem solutions
      3. Criteria matrix
         1. alternatives vs. criteria
         2. assign y/n or scale to each cell
      4. rank for preference
         voting is ok here
      5. sort by category
         group first then evaluate
      6. list advantages and disadvantages
      7. what i like ...
         helps avoid fixed positions, esp if done by someone without ownership of idea
   3. Decision Making
      1. Is there anyone who "can't live with ..."
         eliminate items
         1. identify major objections
         2. look for sub-areas of consensus and variations
      2. Straw voting
      3. consensus
      4. executive decision
   4. Planning
      1. list activities, establish precendence network, critical path, dependencies
      2. work backwards
      3. goals and objectives/milestones
         
8. 18 steps to a better meeting
   1. Before
      1. who, what, where, when, why, how many
      2. send out agenda
      3. arrive early
         
   2. Beginning of meeting
      this is a very social time, and very important. often need to relax, get warmed up, humor, socialize, thank participants
      1. start on time
      2. introductions, set expectations
      3. define roles (facilitator, etc)
      4. revise, review, order agenda
      5. set time limits
      6. review action items from prior meeting
         
   3. During the meeting
      1. focus on the same problem in the same way at the same time
         I'm not sure this is so critical, but that's what the book says!
   4. End of the meeting
      1. establish action items: who, what, when
      2. review group memory (documentation)
      3. next meeting time, date, prelim agenda
      4. evaluate meeting
      5. compliment and thank participants
         encourage, support
   5. After meeting
      1. prepare group memo
      2. follow-up on action items
      3. plan next meeting

Selling the Invisible

Harry Beckwith, Selling the Invisible - A Field Guide to Modern Marketing 1997.

Notes on selling non-material items (services, information, software)

• first impressions stick
• build a brand and stay focused
• keep the message simple
• set price "high"; stop when 25% of customers object
• identify weaknesses, turn weaknesses into strengths
• customers cannot judge quality: they focus on surrogates: dress, stationery, business cards, phone messages, voice mail, web page
• print and use custom thank you notes
• pay for a 3rd party survey of one's customers
• advertise extensively
• have a private mission statement
• positioning (turning weakness into strength): create both desired and true position statements
• exploit any Halo effect

Ten Things Bob Taught Me

1. Don't do anything today that can be put off until 5 minutes before the deadline.
2. Keep a clean desk. (Taught by counter-example)
3. When skating in a bad part of town, have a slower friend in orange shorts behind you.
4. If you want to make people talk (sweat), say nothing.
5. You can wear anything with a good jacket and shoes.
6. Meetings are for schmoozing, not sitting.
7. Be careful who you clobber on the basketball court -- they might be faculty.
8. When someone says "no, no, no, never, absolutely not" they mean "maybe".
9. You can get a lot of forgiveness with a warm apology.
10. Don't forget your friends.

The Mental Efficiency Series

Published @ 1916 by Funk and Wagnalls, I have several of these books. They are 'self-help' books with a peculiar 19th century Victorian flavor; today they read like friendly advice from a US Marine's drill seargent. If you weary of sensitive, inclusive, and gentle approaches to self-improvement, these books are refreshingly different. I include them here just because of their historical novelty.

The most interesting are written by Yoritomo-Tashi, a 19th century 'philosopher' with a military background and an interest in self-improvement. The preface claims that in 1914 or so his writings were preserved in an obscure museum in then provincial Japan. The best known of the series is Timidity and How to Overcome It, Funk and Wagnalls, 1916. Translated by Mary W. Artois.

Links

• Graduate School Theses and Projects: Planning and Completion
• Solving Problems: The CSD Approach
• Psychological Type Profiles: some pop psychology, but sometimes provides insights to guide meetings.

History

• April 2001: updated with additional resource notes
• Mar 5, 2000: found my cognition notes and added them.
• Jan 29, 2000: moved to new format, included other texts.
• 1996: initial version - notes on reengineering

Footnotes