Management

We all hate it when our boss is leaning over our shoulder while he waits for us to do some task on the computer, it’s like we suddenly become mouse clumsy, or our typing skills resemble those of a five year old. Well, if Microsoft get’s its way, the future of monitoring staff will become easier for the bosses, and much tougher for the employees…

According to an article in The Times, the process will even alert a manager if your heart beat and facial expressions indicate you are stressed or frustrated. Details of the process were discovered in a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism.

Anti-slacking software at work - Technology - smh.com.au

This is a new level, some would say a new depth, of the Microsoft empire’s technology. As you can imagine Civil Rights activists are up in arms about this, particularly when companies see it as their right to monitor employee’s every minute at work. Never before in the history of the world have humans worked so continuously at such a high level of concentration as the knowledge workers of today. And it’s the same from truck drivers to surgeons, the expectations are enormous, it is almost impossible for anyone to maintain perfect concentration, optimum stress levels and peak performance for more than a few hours at a time, maybe even a day. Then there is always the risk that bosses will use the technology to increase the stress levels of employees they don’t like… privacy is becoming eroded in the face of technology.

In my role as Manager of Engineering, I am also responsible for asset management. Fortunately for me, the City is relatively small, and keeping track of all the various pieces of equipment, computers, fleet, buildings, etc is not a huge task. However, one option that has been considered, and has worked in Municipal and Commercial asset management systems elsewhere is barcoding of assets and documents.

For most engineers barcodes are the last thing they want to have to think about, but it’s not just the barcode that’s important, it’s the Barcode Verifier that is important. This could be a handheld scanner, similar to the ones at the supermarket, but designed to read the barcodes for your assets and allow you to store relevant information in a database.

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So where do you go to get this Barcode Verification Equipment? A viable solution need to have an online presence, online store, offer turnkey solutions, as well as parts and suppliers. These guys seem to offer all of that, in a website that is pretty straight forward. Barcode Verification and writing equipment is not cheap, but for asset management and document tracking in organizations of any size, barcodes, offer a simple secure way to manage a database of physical items.

I’m not sure how we are going to manage our assets, particularly with the requirements that have been imposed by higher levels of government on capital asset management, but a barcoding system seems like a good idea.

Local Councils can get to the point of forgetting that they are there to represent the people. Here’s a criticism that I’ve never heard expressed like this, but is a pretty common phenomenon.

His biggest criticism with council is the way it operates. “You have to avoid making decisions based on “DAD”, (where) you decide, you announce, you defend.”

 

The Independent - Water meter foe enters mayors race

Does anyone have an acronym for a better method of decision making?

Fortunately, I haven’t had to attend too many council meetings in my life, however, in my new role, I am representing developers and clients more and more frequently in the capacity of a Civil and Urban Engineering Designer. My biggest complaint on how council meetings are run would be how difficult it is for the general public to follow on with the proceedings and to understand what the motions being passed or otherwise might actually be about. Apparently I’m not the only one… 

The vague and lackadaisical way that public meetings are often conducted can frustrate anyone who watches local government at work. When commissions or councils vote, citizens can be left in the dark as to what the vote was about and why board members voted the way they did.

A primer on public meetings

This article gives some tips to councils such as lose the jargon, explain to the public what’s going on, and why members are voting on an issue the way they are. Really, it’s all nicely summed up in the final two paragraphs…

Also, elected officials should keep in mind that the process by which a decision is reached can be as important as the decision itself. All the rules of order in the world won’t matter if elected officials do not value openness and accountability in conducting the public’s business.

Local governmental bodies should strive for good work habits and an open decision-making process. That is the least that the public should be expect from its leaders.

Send a copy of the article to your local council members if they are in need of a primer.

What would you say if you received an email like this? All for $19.95!

idaho-hum.com Blog Archive Lycos SUCKS: they held my emails for ransom for $19.95, then deleted them:

I am the manager of all of Customer Service. There is no one higher than me that you will speak with. You violated our policy, which is, despite what you say, completely clear. No one is holding anything hostage. Your e-mails have been completely deleted, and no amount of money can now restore them.

It amazes me that people like this believe that they are doing something good for their organisation!

How do you respond when something is out of line or not quite the way it’s supposed to be? Could that response damage you or your company’s reputation?

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Technorati : attitude, business, customer, customer service, idaho-hum, lycos, management

Who loves training? Who loves training other people?

In my last job I spent the final few weeks attempting to pass on much of my knowledge of the design software and methods we use onto several EITs, (junior engineers).  This had been slow coming, mainly due to job requirements, and timings with other commitments. But finally we got there.  The guys got in and learnt some of subdivision design in 12D software.

When organising technical training, not everyone picks up things at the same speed, or in the same ways.  Some people can pick up software quickly with a couiple of pointers and the help files, other people learn by asking questions, others learn primarily by observing. All people gain from parts of each type of learning, and that’s why when training its a good idea to try to incorporate each method.  But first things first… preparing.

The hardest part of the process is definitely preparing myself. The ability to spend time working through what needs to be taught, how many sessions it will take and how I’m going to get these guys up to a standard where they can run. 
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Roughly in accordance with the Manager Tools Training Method these are my steps:

Devise - Prepare your training, get all the material you are presenting and have any reference materials ready as well for questions or bonus time. Set the time and the place and make sure all the required equipment (computers, projectors etc) is available.
Describe the skill -  This always comes first, this is where I hand out my training notes, charts, council codes,
Demonstrate - I always try to show them the processes of design in this step.  This takes a lot of effort to separate out the describing and demonstrating of the process.
Dipstick - This is the bit I like most, where as the trainer I get to test or “dipstick” the performance of the junior engineers.
Debrief - Celebrate success or reschedule further training.

Some people are easy to train, others are tougher than pulling teeth, if you put the effort in up front and present the training program well, everyone is much more likely to walk out (1) having learnt something new and (2) with their sanity still intact. For further discussion on these ideas, check out the link above to the Manager Tools Podcast.

Technorati Tags: training, managers, engineers, management, software, technical, information

Starting a new job is a great time to be thinking about methods and procedures for personal and corporate productivity. Over the past week as I’ve been getting over jetlag and getting my head around new software, people, places, regulations, methods, techniques and all the other bits that make up a move from one country to another or even one city to another.

I’m starting in a role with lots of new things, really, just about everything is new to me all with the backbone of Civil Engineering, Subdivision Design and Project Management as core skills. So where did I start? More after the jump…

GTD

I’m a big fan of the book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (GTD), the methods detailed in this book are enough to make the most disorganized person clutter free. So when starting a new job GTD must come into the picture for me. Lots of Folders, marker pens, filing cabinets, collection trays and a commitment to keeping things in order.

My favorite personal collection is with the Hipster PDA, a set of 3×5 index cards held together with a clip, matched with a Fischer Space Pen for a bit of style. While on the go, this handy rearrangeable notepad serves me well, with reminders, phone numbers, and space for collection of whatever needs jotting down. But my biggest task for productivity in setting things up is with my computer.

Sticking with Outlook

This is the first job I’ve had where there has been some flexibility as to whether or not you used firefox or IE, and even to the point of whether you use Outlook or something else. Currently I do all my personal email in gmail and I love the way I can bring about inbox zero through archiving all but the immediately actionable items. For the office, I’ve decided to set up my machine with Outlook, not because it is my favorite program, rather, because of a recently developed add-in called Jello, which acts as a homepage for Outlook, (it replaces your “today page”), that is set up for GTD processing and actioning, complete with contexts and projects.

This customization, combined with the free version of SyncMyCal which syncs the next seven days of calendar appointments to my Google Calendar, (which can send SMS’s for reminders) gives me a fair degree of flexibility when working in or out of the office.

As my workload increases, I’ll keep you up to date with how the system is working and is developed. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you do to stay organized at work, please leave a comment below.

Technorati Tags: GTD, Getting Things Done, David Allen, Hipster PDA, Outlook, Jello, SyncMyCal, Google Calendar, productivity, personal management, business, management

How many hours do you work a week? This question is buzzing around the blogosphere at the moment, following a post by Mike from Freshbooks about the hours he works as an entrepreneur.

FreshBooks

First up, cause it’s worth understanding who this guy is, what’s Freshbooks?

FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking service that saves you time and makes you look professional - Fortune 500 professional. FreshBooks is easy to use and you can try it for free.

Online billing is a pretty simple way to keep track of hours done, invoices and payments, and Mike has done a great job with this tool that even has a free version.

Working Week

Now back to the hours Mike works (with a surprise at the end)…

How Long is Your Work Week?

I believe that you need to be refreshed to be effective. When I first started out seven years ago as a solo consultant/freelancer/web designer - a true one man shop, jack of all trades - there were times when I worked too much…

So how long is my work week these days? I usually get to my desk around 8:00 AM and leave around 7:00 PM. While I sometimes arrive earlier or later, I rarely work past 7:00 PM. I think it is important to have a clear and consistent end to your workday. So, I work about 11 hours per day (55 hours per week). Now, that does not include…

Click through on the link to see his daily routine, it’s busy!

Mini-Managing

But there is one comment that is extremely detailed and starts like this…

I always tell people that the work ethic of entrepreneurs in the IT world is to be admired. I started off as a small business owner (not IT related) and now I run 2 stores and employ 61 people. I suppose I’m still considered a small business owner but I started out with only 3 employees.

In the beginning, I worked roughly 50-60 hours/week and it was a real pain. My problem was that I handled virtually every aspect of the business. I quickly learned that it was vital, both to my business and to my health, to delegate various important responsibilities to others.

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I am now at a point where I hardly work at all. In a sense I’m still running the show. I make most of the big decisions and I make sure I’m up-to-date with all the key aspects of the business but I don’t need to micromanage the daily tasks anymore.

My Work Week:

3 hrs - Reviewing reports and getting up to speed
2 hrs - Touching base with key clients & partners
2 hrs - Checking up on the stores & socializing with employees.

7 hrs - Total

How Long is Your Work Week?

Click through to check out his schedule, he breaks it down by day. Too bad he didn’t leave a link to a blog or something.

Is it possible to work so few hours and still run a business effectively?

via Web Worker Daily.

Technorati Tags: freshbooks, online billing, work, webworker, work hours, working hours, office work, entrepreneur, burnout

Who likes free productivity software?  We do!

Update #2: ActiveCollab is no longer being developed as free software. For a free branch of activeCollab that is a great community driven effort, check out ProjectPier.

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You have a choice

I’m sure many readers already know what Basecamp is, but for those who don’t, please don’t click this link, (unless you don’t like free)…

Rather, click this one…

ActiveCollab has taken the best parts of Basecamp and other project management and document sharing software suites, and incorporated these into a powerful server based program that is free.  That’s right you read it correctly, free. Read more after the jump…

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Today the developer has made the Release Candidate for version 0.7 public, meaning that its so close to being ready, that he’s willing to let the world try it out, and any upgrade to the final 0.7 release will be relatively straight forward.

Its been two and a half months since activeCollab 0.6 was released. Its been a successful release because it solved some pretty nasty problems that activeCollab alpha had and provided pretty much stable platform for whole two months. Now is time to move on and introduce activeCollab 0.7. For start it’s a release candidate, but it will be replaced with full 0.7 during next week if everything goes as planned (nothing major should change in the meantime so simple file rewrite will be enough to upgrade).

Source: activeCollab website - activeBlog

What is activeCollab?

So what do you do with this software? From the website:

activeCollab is an easy to use, web based, open source collaboration and project management tool. Set up an environment where you, your team and your clients can collaborate on active projects using a set of simple, functional tools. 100% free!

There are no limitations as to the number of projects, users, files or documents that you use, aside from the data limit on your server storage, consider the following table, (links to Basecamp), showing that many of the business type plans start at $24 dollars a month, up to $149 a month.  Now that may not be a  lot of money for a large, established business, but consider that even the cheapest of the “business” plans still means 100 less coffees!  Now I’m not intending to criticize Basecamp, but for a similar software, (not quite as polished, but stable, easy and intuitive to use), to offer their product for free it makes me wonder why companies are spending money on Basecamp?  37 Signals is nothing like Microsoft, but the analogy remains true for the comparison between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice. 

I’ve downloaded the RC0.7 release of activeCollab, and will be installing it over the weekend. For a full list of the features see “What’s New“

 You can check out a basic activeCollab screencast of the features to show you how to use the software in your workflow and project management.

As of version 1.0, activeCollab is no longer free - check out ProjectPier for a free, open source alternative that has branched from the activeCollab 0.7.1 version.