Today’s blogpost has one key theme: Project Management. It also has a “silly sub-theme” (SST): Business MadLibs. And oddly enough, they somehow manage to fit together. Here at Whiteboard Consulting, our mantra is always to make things simple and easy for our clients to apply back at the workplace instantly.

Yesterday I was talking to a friend, and I blurted out: “We sort of do business Madlibs!” (I may just be that brilliant and creative). We help people by only making them think about what is important. We provide all the structure and tools to make it easy. Just fill it out and GO!

Have you ever heard the following?

• “We never get anything done on time.”
• “What do you mean I was supposed to do that? I thought Finance was doing that? They never follow through.”
• “Our timelines as are always so tight we never have time to let everyone in the company know, they’ll figure it out when we implement.”
• “Well, I thought there was a possibility this might happen, but I didn’t really think about what we would do if it actually did happen”

Most growing organizations do hear these kinds of statements. It’s normal. But, it’s not OK! You can easily eliminate this negativity and blame game with some simple project management techniques (no PMP required!) Pssst! This also improves your workplace culture and employee engagement.

Read on for Whiteboard Business MadLibs: The Project Management Edition.

The key components of project management are: Clearly Defined and Delegated Roles and Responsibilities, Risk Management, Strong Communications Plan, and Time Management.

Below are TWO tools you can use to take ANY activity in your business to make sure it is implemented better, faster, and cheaper: a mini project charter and a project plan. The Charter addresses roles and responsibilites, risk management, and communications. The Project Plan addresses Delegated responsibilities and Time Management.

1. A mini project charter. This can be a 5 minute exercise or a much longer one depending on the breadth and depth of the activity you are working on. The key themes are:

• Scope & Creeps: What is in and out of scope for this? What are you doing? What is this NOT fixing/addressing etc. This makes expectations clear for everyone.
• Roles & Responsibilities: What are the accountabilities for people working on this? Who is managing the project versus providing technical subject matter expertise?
• Governance Structure: Who is responsible for making the decisions?
• Stakeholders: Who needs to be consulted? Who is responsible for implementing a component? Who just needs to stay in the loop?
• Risks and Impacts: What are the possible risks to not implementing on time or on budget? What is the likelihood of those happening? Have you thought of some ideas to help mitigate those risks?

2. A project plan with clearly defined and delegated roles and responsibilities.

Quickly and simply, a project plan is easy as a,b,c,: a) identify the task, b) identify who owns the task, and c) when are they going to have it done.

A project plan helps you organize and use your time well and identify where tasks may be dependent on the completion of other tasks, and most importantly document who is going to complete the task. You’d be amazed at how a person’s name next to a task makes them instantly accountable for it and worried if they don’t complete it on time! Here’s a quick and easy sample you can use:

Just “Madlib” it and put in your tasks, owners, and dates! Start high level, you can always get more detailed as you go.

Now, some of you are thinking, “WOW that’s alot of work I don’t have time for this nonsense. I just need to get it done.”

Think of the possible outcomes if you don’t use basic project management in your next activity:

• poor communication
• lost time
• rework
• extra budget on expensive consultants
• frustration
• lack of job satisfaction

The list goes on and on! But spending just an hour or two up front can make all the difference.

Give it a go and tell us what you think! Email us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons using #betterfastercheaper.

Until Next week!!
Nicole

If you’re a regular reader then you might remember that I’m a list maker, so it won’t come as a surprise to you to learn that I’m a planner too. After all, a list is a pre-cursor to a plan. The essential “first step”, as it were.

Are you a planner? I expect half of you are, and half of you aren’t. Either way, this blog post is for you! If you answered yes, then you’ll be interested to know how your planning OCD will help you in a process improvement effort. If you answered no? Well, then I promise to make this as painless as possible.

Ya Gotta Have a Plan.

…especially if we’re talking about data collection.

Last week Nicole took you through three easy steps for creating the all-important problem statement. You learned that you need to be able to define the defect so you can measure it, and so you can prove that you fixed it. It follows that if you can fit in some data, then you’re more likely to be able to communicate your process improvement idea effectively, to gain buy-in, and to get funding if that’s something you need.

What if you don’t have the data? Can you skip that part?

Ummm, no actually. You can’t. Not if you want to do this right. But don’t panic – all you need is a plan.

A well-prepared Data Collection Plan helps ensure successful preparation of the business case by making sure there is useful data on hand. Click to Tweet.

Back to List-Making…

If you’re a procrastinator, now is the time to give yourself a stern talking-to and remember that it is NOT ok to put off building a data-collection plan. Do it now, before you get started on the project. Otherwise you are putting the success of the project at risk, not to mention potentially alienating colleagues when you go running to them at the last minute to ask them for information.

So get out your pen and paper, and make a list with the following:

• What data do you need?
• Who is responsible for getting it?
• Why is it needed?
• How will it be collected?
• When will it be collected?
• Where will it be collected?

Now work this into your overall project plan. It really IS that simple.

Not sure about a project plan? You don’t have your PMP designation? Never fear, Nicole will cover that next week. Stay tuned, and in the meantime follow us on Twitter @Whiteboardcons and use #BetterFasterCheaper to join the conversation.

Until next week,
Ruth

The solution is the problem.

Okay – today’s blog is not only very late, but I’m going to try to explain one of the most challenging process improvement tasks in just a few simple steps.

Ruth reminded us that people always have issues, pain points, and things that drive them crazy at work. And moreover, people always seem to know-it-all and have solutions.

It’s easy as 1, 2, 3….

So Ruth taught us a few things last week: how not to include a solution in your problem statement and that a defect is any result of your process that doesn’t meet the demands of your customers (internal and external)

Now that you aren’t solution-ing. What about specifics? Where is your problem happening? How often? Which site? Which types of projects? Take out those statements, like “thisALWAYS happens” or “we NEVER get shipments on time”. Find out exactly what the problem is.

Ruth also taught us that defects always cost you money – they mean you have wasted time and effort, thrown away expensive materials, and perhaps even caused you to upset (or even lose) valuable customers. So there – DO SOME MATH.

So, in nutshell, to make a great problem statement make sure you follow 3 easy steps:
1. No solutions
2. Be specific
3. Do some math (Click to Tweet)

Here’s an example to help you understand:

(1) Tom’s customers are dissatisfied.

(2) Tom’s customers are dissatisfied with the coffee at the King and Bay location.

(3) Tom’s customers are dissatisfied with the coffee at the 24-hour King and Bay location. Customers complain their coffee is too cold and wait an extra 2 minutes to receive a second cup of hot coffee. A coffee re-do order happens over x times per hour. Each cup of coffee costs the company $x in time and resources. This is a loss of $x to the franchise every year.

Here’s a little handy dandy problem statement builder you can use to get you started:

(Insert customer type/name) are dissatisfied with (insert product/service/process) at (insert specific location) during (insert time frame). (Insert customer type/name) has to wait(insert amount of time) to (insert next task/ideal situation i.e.. send, receive, process etc). This results in (# dissatisfied customers) each (insert time frame – year, month etc.), and ($X revenue/inventory/profit) lost each (insert time frame – year, month, etc.).

How did it work for you? Did it help you to better define your problem?

Wait. Hold the Cinnamon!

Now before you start freaking out about how you have no data to put into those x’s and y’s – It’s okay if you don’t have all the information. It’s normal to not always have all the data you need.

That’s why next week Ruth is going to regale you with all the fun and excitement of a Data Collection Plan. I meant that seriously guys….

Let us know what examples you came up with. Email us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons using#BetterFasterCheaper.

For the past few weeks we featured a series of blogs on Culture Change and how it can impact your organization’s ability to be #BetterFasterCheaper in everything it does. This week we return to our favourite topic of business process improvement. After all, it’s what we at Whiteboard Consulting Group are all about!

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

Think about process improvement opportunities in your daily worklife. Go ahead and jot them all down. I’ll wait…

Not coming up with anything? Sometimes that statement is too jargony for people, so we switch to, “what are the points of pain or the problems in your daily work life?” (And yes, you can apply this to your home life as well. Remember, a process is a process is a process.)

Interestingly, the answer to this question is often a solution-based answer. In other words, we hear things like:

• ”We need to communicate better with our suppliers.”
• ”We need to upgrade our equipment.”
• ”Someone needs to fix the accounts receivable process.”
• ”We need to train our customers.”
• ”The grocery store needs better scanners at the checkout.”

Each one of those statements is a solution, and yet the question asked for the problem.

It’s natural for people to come up with generalized solutions first. They have been dealing first-hand with bad processes and pain-points for so long that they’ve had a lot of time to think about it. Their gut tells them that solution X will fix everything.

How can you be sure that these solutions, if implemented, will fix things when you don’t know what it is you really want to fix? What if it actually makes things worse, if not for you, for someone else downstream in the process? What if upgrading your equipment in one area means that another area has to change their equipment too, even though there’s nothing wrong with it?

Problem = Defect

Try thinking of it this way. A defect is any result of your process that doesn’t meet the demands of your customer. (And don’t forget, your customers can be external and internal!) (Click to Tweet)

Defects always cost you money – they mean you have wasted time and effort, thrown away expensive materials, and perhaps even caused you to upset (or even lose) valuable customers.

So now we rephrase our question again. What are the defects you are dealing with in your daily work life?

Now the answers might look something like this:

• ”We receive the wrong shipment from our suppliers several times a month.”
• ”Our stamping equipment requires maintenance once a day.”
• ”We don’t know what our accounts receivables are.”
• ”Our customers can’t figure out how to put the product together on their own.”
• ”It takes too long to check out at the grocery store.”

Can you look at these statements and see that there could be many possible solutions to the problems described? It doesn’t mean that the original solutions are necessarily wrong – but they might be. Or, they may miss some other opportunities.

Give it a shot. Try describing a defect that you deal with in your life. Are you able to describe it objectively? Or did you jump to a solution? Let us know what examples you came up with. Email us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons using #BetterFasterCheaper.

Next week, Nicole will tackle the tricky Problem Statement. Mastering this makes your process journey so much easier.

Until then,
Ruth.

Nice Tips, But….

You must be thinking, “Wow, Ruth and Nicole I thought you guys were management consultants and doing amazing things with efficiency and process improvement – and for the past three weeks all you’ve given us are three measly office tips. Worse yet, today’s blog title is the Squish Method. Honestly?”

Well, yes. Sort of. But you have to start somewhere. You cannot create a huge culture shift, without changing a few small things first.

Are you tired of waiting for others? Are you tired of trying to be the office cheerleader? Are you tired of people acting in a way that is “NOT OK”, and they keep getting away with it?

Read on, the Squish Method is for you.

Three Keystones to Change Success: The Squish Method

The Squish Method: Communicate, Role Model, and give Feedback, from the top,down, across and then right back up again creating the “squish point” where magic, and change really happen. Click to Tweet

1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.

Head Honcho: Keep talking about what you are trying to achieve. Show some metrics. Detail your expectations. Celebrate your successes. Don’t stop talking (well, you know what I mean) and communicating.

Everyone Else: Seek to understand everything you need to be succesful. Ask questions. Talk to others. Lead the way. Be the change (yeah, I said it).

2. Role Model, Role Model, Role Model.

Head Honcho: Practice what you preach. If you don’t make it to meetings on time, use the word BUT all the time, and then “Risk Slap” (a wrist slap for taking a risk) (Click to Tweet) your team – it is just going to roll downhill, and your big culture shift will disappear and you will just go back to where you started.

Everyone Else: Just try. Honestly. Will it kill you?

3. Feedback, Feedback, Feedback.

Head Honcho: Reward your top performers. Encourage your fence-sitters and provide polite, timely, and specific feedback to your folks who refuse to get on the bus. And, even more ASK for feedback. Ask everyone about their opinion, what they think is working and not working, and continually flex and adjust to get the message right.

Everyone Else: Ever coached your boss on something? After a particularly negative, unproductive meeting where your boss was cantankerous – try asking this: “How do you think that went?”. Just try it. Tell me about it later. It’s a magical moment for everyone involved.

Let me know what happens, I’d love to know. Email us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons using #betterfastercheaper.

Until Next Time,
Nicole

And here you have it, as promised two weeks ago, my last secret tip on culture change to share with you; Email: Info & Action please.

I think Emily Post would be very pleased with this approach. It’s simple, cordial, to the point, and it eliminates confusion. More importantly it signals to the intended recipient, whether they need to act, or, sit back and absorb the information for future reference.

Sprinkle a dash of the old rules and a pinch of the new rules…

1. Begin the subject line of your eMail with (Action) or (Info). You can provide more detail if you like, such as (Action: Approval) or (Action: Your Opinion Please). This allows people to sort on subject line and deal with action items first. The rest of the subject line should provide context for the Action or Info contained in the eMail.

2. eMails should be short and concise, along the lines of a Briefing Note. (Click to Tweet.) Consider writing in headings that summarize background, issues, next steps, and actions required.

3. Highlight any action required and the due date in bold red font.

4. Answer “Action” eMails swiftly – within one business day – even if it’s just to say you’ll get back to someone.

5. Don’t attach unnecessary files.

6. Don’t overuse the “High Priority” indicator.

7. Limit the cc list.

8. Don’t reply to all unless “all” really need to read your response.

9. Include an agenda, or at least a detailed description of the purpose of a meeting, in every meeting request.

10. Proof-read the email before you send it. And if you’re writing an email on a contentious issue, consider letting it sit as a draft for a couple of hours or overnight, and then going back to it. It’s also helpful to read it aloud.

I know this might sound like a lot of rules, but trust me, people will be grateful to you for making their life easier, AND, you’ll be thanking yourself as well.

Want to see how many action items you sent this week and how many you need to follow up on? Check your sent box and filter. See what I mean?

If you have some effective e-mail rules that have been tried and tested, we would love to hear from you. Email us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons using #betterfastercheaper.

Until next week,
Nicole

Last week Nicole started off our series on organizational culture and its impact on change and transformation. As she said, small changes are the key to setting the foundation for change readiness. And a great place to start is to start putting some rigor in your meeting practices!

This week I’ll introduce another small but impactful change for you to consider.

How many times have you been in a meeting or on a conference call and heard phrases that start off like these?

“I like that idea, but I just want to add…”
“I agree with everything she said, but you should also consider…”
“I don’t mean to argue, but …”
“I’m sorry but…”

No Buts About It

Next time you hear the word “but” used like that, listen to the context. Essentially, that tiny word negates everything that came before it. (Click to Tweet.)

“I like that idea, but…” means I don’t really like it, or it’s certainly not complete without what I am about to add.

“I agree with everything she said, but…” means I don’t actually agree with everything at all!

“I don’t mean to argue, but…” means I’m about to argue.

“I’m sorry, but…” means I’m not sorry. And in fact, I’m about to shift the blame to someone or something else.

Why do people make this common mistake so frequently? In most cases, it’s a genuine attempt attempt to soften the blow. In others, it’s a passive-aggressive response designed to sound nice, while inflicting some kind of finger-pointing.

And By The Way

The easy way to fix this? Substitute “but” with “and”. Easy peasy! Now you’re giving feedback AND adding to it or changing it with clear intentions. It makes you sound better and makes the listener want to hear what you have to say.

My challenge to you? Listen for the errant “but” at meetings. And especially – listen when YOU say it. Replace it with “and” – you’ll see the difference, and so will your colleagues!

Before you know it, your organizational culture will begin to shift and become more accepting to the seeds of change. Let us know how it works! Email us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons. using #betterfastercheaper.

Until next week,
Ruth.

One person can’t move a mountain…..

We’re working with a client that wants to implement a culture of continuous improvement, better engagement, improved communication, cost reductions – the whole gamut of improvement activities that is the core of our business. Yay! Our favourite type of work.

One of the best lessons we’ve learned in our line of business, is that MANY people need to change small habits that they do every day, to contribute to a transformational project like this.

A workplace culture that is risk averse can never embrace a transformational change that is hinged on innovation and brainstorming to arrive at its final goals. (Click to Tweet) The CEO can’t be the only one driving the strategy, and more importantly, the organization has to a) Execute the new changes but also b) develop a culture that supports the change. The challenge is – what comes first the chicken or the egg? Or in this case, what comes first culture or strategy?

How can you make small changes to change your culture to start, so that you can start executing that strategy right away (they often can’t wait)?

I’m late and have no idea why I’m here anyway!

Have you ever been sitting waiting for the other participants in a meeting to arrive, only to have them arrive late, not understand the context of the meeting, and feel like you haven’t gotten anything accomplished?

I’m going to share with you two secret tips that can improve the culture of your business, and they only require small changes from a few key people at the top of the food chain, to make these stick.

Too many people are rushing from back to back meetings. Being on time is a sign of respect for the other participants (and their time) and for the subject matter of the meeting.

1. Always have an objective for the outcome of the meeting, so everyone understands what the purpose of their attendance is. For example: In today’s managers meeting, make the following final decisions for Project X: final budget and target completion date. Put this in the email request so everyone responding knows why they need to be there. Now you understand why you are there, what decisions are going to be made, and you make sure they are complete by the end of the meeting (because you arrived on time too….).
2. 10% Late rule – if you are more than 6 minutes late for a 60 minute meeting and there isn’t sufficient quorum to make the decisions (outlined in a above) the meeting is cancelled and rescheduled.

I know it can be tough with back to back meetings, but some proactive timing (i.e. we have five minutes left and have a hard stop at 1pm, so let’s try to nail down the final numbers) and adherence to the rules do wonders.

As a teaser, I have two more secret tips to share with you – 1) The Word BUT is evil and 2) Email: Info & Action please. But you’ll have to wait until next time….. In the meantime – eMail us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons using #betterfastercheaper.

Nicole

Set for Pilot. Roger That.

I was recently at a dinner with a client in the hospitality industry and we were discussing the implementation of (new and improved) changes in his business. I said, “Let’s start with a pilot, and then….”.

Oh oh, the room has gone quiet, and I feel like I’ve suddenly grown five heads and a mouth full of fangs! “A pilot? I’m confused, what does that have to do with what we’re talking about?”, he says. Oops, my bad. I think the word ‘pilot‘ has fallen so deep into my basic vocabulary, that I failed to realize that most people associate it with planes, trains and automobiles.

3, 2, 1, Blastoff!

So what is a pilot then? Simply put, a pilot is a way of testing changes or solutions on a small scale (e.g. resources: time, people, locations, funding, etc).

But why do it? isn’t it better to just implement it and save all the resources spent on a pilot? You can, but there are a lot of good reasons for piloting, and here are my top four:

1. Your Solution is Pricey. Think of it this way. Before you buy the $10M home, you might want to walk through it and make sure it works for you. If you don’t, you might be $10M poor and have a house that’s been built out of recycled tires- it is ‘green’ after all.

2. Your Solution isn’t Easy to Change. This is very true in situations where the solution is a new platform or foundation of some type. For example, your entire business of 100+ employees is using a Microsoft Operating System with its own programs. Changing to an Apple Operating System would require a complete overhaul, and if you weren’t happy with, would be expensive and disruptive to reverse.

3. You Want To Make Sure it Works as You Envisioned It. You wouldn’t want to put a new set of brakes on the market without testing them. Imagine what would happen if they didn’t work the way you designed them? Lawsuits galore!

4. You Want To Ensure You Didn’t Miss Something in the Design. If Rome knew what their expansion downfalls were going to be ahead of time (that is, before it fell), they would have fixed them (Click to Tweet). Big visions and major changes can obscure the little, and unthought of, yet critical, workings of your ideas.

Have you ever done a pilot before? Has it worked? Tell us some of your experiences, we’d love to hear them. Email us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons. using #betterfastercheaper.

Until next week….
Nicole

Summer School

Remember when you were a kid and you went back to school and you talked about what you did on your summer vacation? You went to camp or on a family vacation or you learned to swim. Later you got a job and you maybe went to summer school to get a head start on a class or upgrade your marks.

I never went to summer school. Until this year.

That’s right. At the ripe old age of 29 (ahem) I spent this summer in school. But not the way you think.

Getting “Skooled” (as the kids say)

Urbandictionary.com says that getting “skooled” is when someone or something beats you in an embarrassing way, and you are therefore taught a hard lesson and people mock you because you should have known better.

I actually enjoyed learning what I did. It was a real eye-opening time for me, and one that made me even more excited about my newly chosen career. So, I’ll say that this summer I was “schooled”, not “skooled” in the art of being an entrepreneur and growing your business.

You can do all the right things like write a clear business plan, develop a strategic plan, map out a contact and sales strategy, develop an online presence and start networking activities. But all those things that you know from business school and years of corporate experience will never compensate for just getting out there and “doing”. Click to Tweet

Three Things I Didn’t Expect to Learn

Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t know everything. (I can hear my friends and colleagues laughing.) There are things that I expected: bumps in the road, the need for patience and flexibility, getting to know different organizational cultures, and administrative annoyances.

There are also a few things that I didn’t expect, and learning these things this summer will make the next few months SO much easier and more productive:

1. Partnering is important. I thought that Whiteboard Consulting Group Inc would be out there doing our own thing in our own way with our own clients. I suppose we could, but that wouldn’t be nearly as effective as partnering with other people in a similar business with a unique offering. It opens up many more opportunities for proposals and networking when you have a “virtual partner network” that you can call on.
2. eMailing (or snail-mailing) a proposal is not ideal. I thought it was great to send everything ahead of time and show how prepared we were. Sadly, I was mistaken. There are times when you have no choice (eg when responding to an online RFP). But whenever you can you should present the proposal in person. Sending it via eMail poses the risk of misunderstanding, missing the point, or the worst – sticker shock. If you have to send something in advance, hold back the pricing and discuss that in person.
3. It’s ok to ask for a budget. Perhaps it’s my upbringing and Canadian “politeness” factor, but I am very uncomfortable discussing money. I have learned to get over that. If you can discuss a budget, you can’t prepare a proposal that will meet the client’s needs. The trick is to discuss it in such as way that the client doesn’t feel you just want to know the budget ceiling so you can charge that amount. On the contrary – it’s needed so that you can tailor your approach to maximize value to the client.

I’m pretty sure that this business is a constant classroom, and I look forward to when I really do know everything. In the meantime, what are things that you’ve learned in the consulting business? I’d love to hear about them – eMail us at info@whiteboardconsulting.ca/staging or tweet us @whiteboardcons using #betterfastercheaper.

Until next time,

Ruth.