Seeking Coastal Utopia

Have you ever been to the circus or have you ever seen videos of the clown car? A bunch of clowns cramped inside, clambering out one after another. Yet you never really know who is driving. They had no purpose other than piing in with most likely no specific directions, no specific purpose other than being slightly silly? In case you are slightly analytical and curious about how they fit so many clowns into cars, Car and Driver devised some physics to justify the science behind clown car stuffing . “plenty of room in this beauty” photo by The Creative Exchange on  Unsplash When you think of the image of the clown car where multiple clowns cycle in and out of the vehicle, running in various directions, switching sides, changing locations, you lose track of who is where and which ones are in the show. The misdirection, constant change and people moving all over the place can cause you to lose track of who is doing what. Unfortunately, some organizations are much like cl...

Communication is seriously overrated. “help!” photo by Hugo Jehanne on  Unsplash It seems we are unable to be clear and accurate in our ability to use words and sentences to convey a particular description, status, or closure of an activity. Please do not get caught in this sort of death spiral: Person 1: Is ready for production? Person 2, are you done with and ready to turn it over to production? Person 2: Oh yeah, that has been done and ready for three weeks. Person 1: Did you communicate this to the production staff? Person 2: Yeah. …Later… Person 1: Hey Production 1, has been ready for your use for three weeks. Was this communicated to you? Production 1: No idea what you are talking about. No one said anything to us. We would love to use the new machine — is it ready? Person 1: *!* …A few more minutes later…confirming email to Person 2. Person 1 Email: Person 2, it was reported that is done and ready for production. Production has no in...

“four person fist bumping” by rawpixel on  Unsplash Project management is all about executing projects and completing actions. Success is not possible without a robust plan to manage the accountability of people that own particular tasks. In a previous post, we described simple project management as being who does what by when . The second part of the “simple” project management is to focus on the requirements of getting the WHO to do the WHAT by WHEN to generate the successful outcome of the expected results. When it is due. The key? Communication. Often. Early and often. There you go, that’s the trick. Seriously, there is nothing else. Okay, maybe that is a little too global. Too ephemeral. We assume people know how to communicate and do it effectively. No, we are humans and we are train wrecks. Messy, messy, messy . You communicate clear expectations based on the owner. WHO . They know they own it, and there is no question that they own it. In this, we as...

“analog clock at 12 am” by Loic Djim on  Unsplash Simple Project Management Simple project management is probably a misnomer. Difficult at times, easy if you own it. But you want to make it a necessary tool for the management process for successful project completion. Who does what by when Any questions? You can stop reading now if you know this. If not, please feel free to continue. WHO — is the person that owns the particular task — this is the person WHO owns this task. They may have a team working with them, but this named person is the owner. The go-to person for everything related to the WHAT . WHAT — is exactly that thing the WHO is doing. The task that the person is expected to do. It is a very explicit task they are required to accomplish. Specificity is highly recommended depending on the complexity of the WHAT WHEN — represents the date or even what time the WHAT is expected to be completed and by WHO . It is okay if the task is com...