What is Your 2019 Word of the Year?

"Growth in Gravel" - (copyright 2019 andrea jones)

The Wall Street Journal tells us this week that the “Global Boom, Barely Begun, May be Over.”  Very motivational headline to start the new year.

Articles like this highlight fast transitions and short-lived trends.  How does this pertain to you personally, professionally, internally and with others?  What should you do to succeed with volatile stock market and consumer sentiment trends, and an increasing cultural value of immediate gratification (1)? 

The first chart below show the last month of the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 4-hour high/low point spread,, and the second depicts decades of the Consumer Sentiment Index, with an 8-point drop in the past month from December 2018 to January 2019.

Figure 1:Reference: Trading Economics with the last month of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Wednesday 1/23/2019

Figure 2: Reference: University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment report with 90.7 in January 2019 versus 98.3 in December 2018 as reported in Advisor Perspectives January 18, 2019

In light of all this - What is your Word of the Year?

Last January, I published AJC’s Word of the Year for 2018 (Learn).  We have had a Word of the Year since 2015 and find that it focuses our year on a theme.  We’ve asked the question of you as well – with the underlying assumption that every person and/or organization will have a different focus. 

This year we’re going to challenge that.

AJC’s Word of the Year – personally and professionally, internally and with others is: PERSEVERE.  

Could this word be yours too?

Persevere (verb) according to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary is: to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement.

In this world of turmoil; the ups and downs, the reactionary sentiments, cultural phenomenon of immediate gratification, to persevere is not fast, sexy, interesting, or cool.  Yet it stoically remains.  There is one way to get things done in this world – things that are consistently meaningful over time.  Persevere.  Keep going, don’t give up, try again, maintain discipline, execute and adjust.  Anything worth having is something worth fighting for, and rarely will come easily.

What do you think?  Will you Persevere this year?

(1)  Wertrz, Jia. “Why Instant Gratification Is The One Marketing Tactic Companies Should Focus On Right Now.”  Forbes, April 30, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/04/30/why-instant-gratification-is-the-one-marketing-tactic-companies-should-focus-on-right-now/#7b9e04f8e91b

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Saved by “Plan B:” The Importance of an Effective Project Manager

Saved by “Plan B”
The Importance of an Effective Project Manager

By: Jessica Foote

As the saying goes, “A stitch in time saves nine.” This story from one of AJC’s clients shows how an effective project manager can save more than nine stitches in time, particularly when Plan A doesn’t go according to plan.

A client with a rapidly growing business engaged AJC’s Julie Bryan to help with a new technology upgrade to their order fulfilment system. The client had already selected a vendor for the new system, so they urgently needed a project manager to help phase out the old system while also making sure their facilities and employees were prepared for the new system.

Anticipating and effectively preparing contingency plans

The original plan had a short four-month timeline for completion.  Within a few weeks of starting the project, however, vendor testing proved to not be as smooth as anticipated, resulting in a projected two-month delay. 

As Julie assessed the situation with the technology vendor, she realized that the client needed to consider the possibility that the delay would very likely be more than two months. Meanwhile, sales were increasing, and the old system was straining to keep up with the orders.

“We didn’t know when- or if- we would get the new system,” explained Julie. “We needed to go to Plan B. We needed to help our client use their existing system to meet customer demand, particularly as they faced the upcoming increase in sales volumes.”

Julie interviewed employees at the company to seek input and she outlined her recommendations regarding the steps the client needed to take to continue for several more months with their existing order fulfilment system.

“Companies need to understand the risks of timelines slipping, and what the backup plans would be if they don’t meet that timeline,” Julie cautions. “At what point do we hit a date when the project absolutely must be complete? A project manager needs to determine that deadline, and work backwards from that date to determine when a company would need to reevaluate and potentially switch gears or start putting Plan B in place.” 

Keeping project budgets on track, even when timelines shift

After Julie delivered her recommendation, AJC offered to pause Julie’s engagement for a few months while the vendor fixed the technology.  This helped the client avoid incurring costs for a project manager during this window of time.  Upon re-engaging on the project, AJC budgeted a 20% buffer on PM work up front to cover any additional unexpected needs.  Ultimately, this buffer allowed Julie to provide an additional six weeks of support at the end of the project to ensure a smooth transition.  Even with the increased duration of the project, AJC did not need to use the entire buffer budget.

Maintaining objectivity amidst competing options

When Julie returned to the project, the new technology was ready to be delivered. However, the company still needed to ensure that operations could continue during cut-over to the new system. As new information came to light with the vendor, the entire team was considering changes to the installation plan at the client’s site.

Julie explained that at this critical point, her task as the project manager was to evaluate different layout options for how the current system could be replaced within the existing warehouse footprint. Julie worked with points of contact from each team in the company to go through the status of the project, taking into account any concerns they had about how the transition would impact their department.  In her recommendations, she provided pros and cons and cost estimates for each of the four scenarios.

In the end, the transition to the new technology was successful, thanks to Julie’s careful planning and flexibility.

Three Reasons to Hire an External Project Manger

1. Experience anticipating and preparing for contingencies: While an internal project manager may be immersed in the weeds of daily operations, an external project manager brings a high-level view to anticipate potential outcomes and prepare for contingencies. An external project manager can determine hard deadlines to trigger a shift in plans for Plan B when necessary.

2. Objectivity: An external project manager isn’t influenced by internal politics, giving them the ability to provide an impartial perspective that can be critical when organizations are planning systems that will fundamentally change their business processes.

3. Saving time and costs: An external project manager will save time and keep budgets on track, particularly when timelines shift due to external factors and flexibility is required.

What Work Gets Done in the “Down” Season?

What Work Gets Done in the “Down” Season?
by AJC Senior Consultant Janell Hosch

Many companies experience seasonality in their industries.  Upon conclusion of that peak time, do you ever take the opportunity to reflect on what could be improved before the next peak occurs? 

Project Prioritization:

The first step is to gather your key team members and collect everyone’s thoughts about issues or inefficiencies they have encountered.  Then, discuss specific projects that could be done to address these issues.  This list may be too long to reasonably tackle in the amount of time or with the resources available, and that is where Project Prioritization comes in.  We recommend using the AJC Project Prioritization Matrix.  When performing your own Project Prioritization, you can easily customize the approach to fit your specific needs.  Determine which evaluation categories are most applicable to your current situation, (e.g., cost impact, production volume impact, time line for implementation).  You can further modify the method for your specific situation by applying the appropriate weight to each category.  If reducing costs is your primary concern, give that category a higher weight that the others.  This is a very objective approach to determining which projects will benefit your particular situation the most.

AJC Case Study – Project Prioritization & Execution

The following is the story of a client who AJC helped guide through the Project Prioritization process from concept to implementation. These efforts resulted in vast cost and efficiency improvements during their next seasonal peak. After you have prioritized the projects and determined which ones to execute, how do you begin to tackle these projects? Develop a project team for each one and get started by laying out all of the milestones necessary to get from where you are today to full implementation. A dedicated project manager to oversee all of the projects works well to ensure continuity and resource balancing. The project teams can then create detailed schedules for their projects, assign owners for each task and associated timelines. Task owners can get started immediately on project execution. 

We encountered some challenges during the implementation phase, as is common with efforts such as this.  One issue was that many of the projects required IT support, and this additional work overloaded the IT department.  They were unable to support their daily obligations and the additional workload from the projects.  This required specific priority and timeline setting within the IT department to ensure they were providing reasonable and achievable timeline commitments to the project teams.  We were also working with project team members across multiple geographic locations.  This required a structured approach to file sharing and communication, as well as video conferencing for effective team meetings.

The AJC client that was going through this process also wanted to develop in-house project management expertise.  As part of this project, AJC provided project management training to an internal employee while actively managing the projects.  As the project teams were making progress, the AJC consultant slowly transitioned PM responsibilities to the internal PM and was able to phase out of the project over time.  Getting the PM fully trained and all of the teams executing per the project plans was the end point of the project for AJC.  The internal PM carried the project through to completion and the next peak season was vastly improved over the previous one.

Our advice to you is, after the peak season has concluded, take the time to brainstorm with your team about what didn’t go well and any possible fixes to improve your processes before the next peak occurs.  If this list is too long to tackle all at once, use a Project Prioritization Matrix to determine which projects will have the biggest impact and can be implemented the quickest.  If the team collectively rates the projects, the best projects will rise to the top of the list.

Read this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: http://andreajonesconsulting.com/blog.aspx

What is Your 2018 Word of the Year?

Three years ago, a colleague suggested that each member of our professional advisory group announce a “Word of the Year” to help focus and embody their primary goal for the New Year.  That year and each since, I have announced a word.

How about you?  What is your word of the year?  What is it that you want to do, accomplish, effect, see, or try this year?  Are there new opportunities you can already predict, or some that you hope will materialize?  Are there challenges that must be overcome, or is it merely change that you are looking for?  Perhaps the goal for the year is for *less* change!  (Here is an article with 5 tips to choose your word of the year!)

Another consideration is whether your word has more to do with you personally, or with your business.  The first year I articulated my word, it was personal.  The next year was about the business.  Last year I thought it was about the business, but it ended up being more personal.  This year my word is “Learn,” and it is intentionally personal.  Time will tell how that pans out.

Whether the word matches your personal or professional life, and is something that will truly last the year or not, reflecting on what this year’s word should be will undoubtedly bring insight and spark innovation.  And both throughout and at the end of the year, reflecting again on how progress is being made to that word will most likely lead to some kind of learning, and hopefully satisfaction.

Happy New Year from all of us at AJC.

 Read this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: http://andreajonesconsulting.com/blog.aspx 

Why the Accountability Chart is First

In Gino Wickman’s book Traction on the Entrepreneur’s Operating System, toward the end of the book, the EOS tools are described in the order of recommended implementation, and they are *not* in the same order of layout in the book itself.  Specifically, before even considering the Vision Traction Organizer, Wickman advises implementing four other steps, the first of which is the Accountability Chart.

Why this order?  Why not start with the Vision Traction Organizer, which should align everyone toward the same common goals with the same common values? 

The key to that answer is hidden within the question.  Specifically “align everyone,” emphasis on the “everyone.”

If you don’t have the right people in the right seats before you start the work of alignment, what exactly are you going to accomplish?  Basically you’re setting yourself up for rework, which fellow lean thinkers would agree is not advisable.

In this case, the “rework” will be that once you do get the right people in the right seats, you’ll have to redefine the vision, values, core focus, market niche, 10-year, 3-year, 1-year plan; all the aspects of the V/TO.  So the right people have to be there first.  To quote Wickman, “The reason we start here with every client is that the chart goes to the root of most issues.  First, you need to take a big step back and determine the right structure for your organization.”

In practice, I will say, this is definitely more challenging than it sounds.  The greatest challenge that arises in many companies is whether the current personnel can or should be the ones to take the organization to the next level.  Specifically, who goes and who stays.

One company with whom AJC engaged with several quarters back knew they needed to make some drastic changes in one of their core functional groups.  They had work in progress, but it seemed to be stalling, and the leader of the group always had a ready explanation.  Unfortunately, “explanations” become less convincing the more frequently they are given; at some point work actually has to get done.  After running a “blitz” style project to identify how to get out of this rut, the organization armed the leader with specific action items and was even prepared to provide outsourced assistance to accomplish them.  Unfortunately, the leader did not quite “get it” – as in, did not fully understand why moving forward in this fashion was important, and ultimately the CEO of the company was forced to make a change.  Unfortunately, it took several months to get to this point even after the blitz project work was done, and that was time wasted toward real progress for the company.

How could this type delay be avoided?  One piece of advice that seems to work well when considering whether current personnel are in the right seats is to create the Accountability Chart *without* names at all – and consider what the roles/responsibilities need to be for the next 2-3 years of desired growth.  Once this is done, assessments of current personnel with respect to skillsets and GWC (Get it, Want It, Capacity to do it) can be created.  Finally, pair up the people to the roles and determine where these match well, where there needs to be shifts to other seats, as well as who is not going to be a fit for the organization moving forward.

All of this does take time, however, and as human beings, we seem to naturally want to “give people a chance to prove themselves.”  However, it is very difficult to move forward to the Vision/Traction Organizer if this has not yet been done because 1) the right people are not going to be involved and it will need to be redone or at least revisited, and 2) the *wrong* people may be around to adversely affect the V/TO, which could steer the company in an undesirable direction.   

The thing that Traction as a stand-alone book does not address very well is just how gut-wrenching this process can be.  While it is definitely the right thing to do, and moving forward without the right team in place does not make sense, prepare to spend some sleepless nights figuring out how to do this with team members that are good people, but just not the right people for the organization at this time.  One truly needs to believe that, in the long run, even a complete separation will be best for everyone.

Read this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: http://andreajonesconsulting.com/blog.aspx

Five Lessons from the Road: L10 Weekly Meeting

Traction warned that it would take a few quarters to get the Rocks right, but I was unprepared for ambiguity in the L10 meeting.  After all, it is basically an accountability meeting which also resolves issues, and I’ve been facilitating those for the past 17+ years.  This article offers Five Lessons from the Road 5 weeks in to holding L10 meetings as part of a “DIY” EOS Implementation initiative offering learnings worth sharing for others who may also be just starting out in implementing Traction, Rocks, and L10 meetings.

1.       Start On Time – First, my laptop was 2 minutes fast, then we had some technical difficulty getting the one remote person online and deciding if the Facilitator or Note Taker was going to project the computer screen.  A third time I scheduled myself into work that went right up to the meeting start time. 

a.     Learning: Get to the meeting location 10 minutes early to get setup, projector working, and have Facilitator project; Note Taker do the copy/paste of Rocks to Issues List and type up Action Items in background – we use an Excel Online spreadsheet for tracking everything, though I have heard of success with Google Sheets as well.

2.       Meeting feels “choppy” – this on/off “no discussion” thing and truncating “rabbit hole” discussions – we are just getting used to this now.  In fact, I literally had to cut the CEO off this morning to stick to On/Off during Rock Review and re-bring up the topic he started to discuss at the Headlines/New Issues agenda item to ask if he wanted to add a new issue to the list for that day (he did)

a.     Learning: This seems to come with time, but amazingly our L10 meeting is only 60 minutes (instead of the 90 recommended) and we get through all of our High priority issues each week, and most of the Mediums; sometimes all.  If discussion seems redundant, I’ll try to summarize or call out for an action item and ask if there is anything else new or material to discuss, and if not; we close out the issue or punt to more information needed via Action Item and move on.  We are getting used to each other and the style of the meeting; it may take a while longer to really hit our stride here.

3.       Scoring – originally we allowed this to be completely subjective – “10 for the best meeting ever” and “1 for a complete waste of time.”  We did this for 2 meetings, then I spoke with a colleague, EOS Implementor Eric Albertson, who advised to score objectively.  I also read “What the Heckis EOS?” and found that it actually gives the same advice, including suggestions of how to score. 

a.     Learning: Develop an objective Scorecard.  We maintained 1 point for “Overall Subjective” because I want interpersonal and intuition to still have a small piece; and the “Everyone Aligned” really is subjective to each individual, but the rest should be fairly black and white.  Here is our scoring checklist:

4.     What are “Issues?” – We have had some “Issues” that really felt more like Headlines.  In other words, there was no decision to be made, but more of an update possibly with some Q&A to clarify what was going on. 

a.      Learning: We decided that these could stick with the “Headlines” portion of the Agenda, just following Rock Review and just prior to To-Dos (Action Item review).  This is the first week we are doing that, but it was well received.  We also are okay to add Issues with a partnering To Do that represent a decision making meeting offline if the topic is important for L10 Leadership Team but will be worked offline with a future decision.  Still working out the kinks with this one, but recognizing that sometimes a Status Update is still important, and recall that Headlines can be internal or external, that seemed the place to put it.

5.       Parking Lot – We put a To-Do on for something which really is not “move the needle” important in the next 2 weeks, but no one wanted to drop.  We gave it a 4 week due date, but then I re-read Traction and that To Dos should be completed in 1 week, 2 at most.  What to do with these small-ish things that aren’t Rock-worthy, but also shouldn’t be lost?

a.    Learning:  Add“Parking Lot” for this type of thing.  We are now collecting all the Issues which didn’t make it as this quarter’s Rocks, as well as possible Issues for next quarter that come up whenever, and we will put Parking Lot actions on it.  The idea is that some of the Parking Lot actions may be grouped into a single Rock if there is a theme, or that when we are “less busy” or when the time seems more appropriate, we will return to the Lot to pick up those Actions.  Since we just started that today, it’s unclear how well it will work, but it does seem logical to document those items but not necessarily spend calories on them today if there are bigger rocks to get in our jar first.

Hope these lessons help others in their journey to implement EOS!

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What is the Best Way to Maintain Accountability?

In my Vistage group meeting last Friday, someone brought up how often companies discuss a specific strategy or plan, but so rarely follow through with it.  In order for any sort of change to happen, maintaining accountability from the team involved is essential.

What is the best way to maintain accountability?  Is it to tell people what you want them to do and just hope they do it?  Or for someone on the Leadership Team to send an email to the whole company and expect everyone to now keep themselves to task?  Recall the marketing adage, the “Rule of Seven,” which states that prospects need to hear the message at least seven times before they’ll take action. 

David Rock describes in Your Brain at Work that “Attention changes the brain.”  Imagine that you are told about a new product or service line that your company intends to offer.  If you hear about this only once, even if it is in the form of “Let’s make it happen!” – is that enough?  Will you suddenly spring into action and complete the goal with no further attention brought to the subject?  Probably not. 

Traction and the Entrepreneur’s Operating System understands this as well.  In following EOS, your leadership team and/or departments will set quarterly “Rocks” or goals – things that absolutely must be done in the next 90 days, and assign 3-5 of them out per individual for accountability.  But the focused attention does not stop with merely setting these Rocks, or even with writing them down.  Every week, the Leadership Team or department team re-gathers for a “Level 10” meeting where each Rock is brought up one by one, and the owner or main person accountable speaks to them.  However, unlike many “Status” meetings, in EOS, all that is said in the first go-round is “On Track” or “Off Track.”  If “Off Track,” the item is dropped to a later portion of the meeting designated for resolving “Issues.”  Once all Rocks have been addressed in this fashion, the team goes on to prioritize each Issue, then Discuss and Solve them one by one (IDS). 

Whether your company uses EOS or not, this cadence of declaring what is important, then maintaining weekly check-ins at a high level, diving deep only when needed, is a great way to maintain accountability for change.  Attention is brought to each topic on a weekly basis, and as long as owners are being honest, the frequent cadence allows for quick resolution of problems before they escalate out of control or it becomes too late.

One key component of maintaining successful L10 meetings is to have two roles met at each meeting.  First is the meeting “owner” – who facilitates the meeting and keeps it on track, and second is the meeting “scribe” – who writes down all issues and solutions, and ensures these are stored in a common location.  These roles could actually be undertaken by the same person if s/he is a fast typist and strong facilitator.

Interestingly, AJC has offered this service for many years to clients, even before having read and bought in to Traction and the Entrepreneur’s Operating System.  We call it our “Accountability Model,” and liken it to hiring a personal trainer or housekeeper.  When you know that you are meeting with your PT or that your housekeeper is coming, you get your workouts done, or pick up the clutter around your house.  Without that forced accountability, it is far too easy to let tasks which require a bit of mental discipline to fall into arrears.

If your company needs to just get something done – consider assigning or outsourcing someone to lead an “Accountability Model” for your company or group.  Stay disciplined to meet weekly and ask if things are on track / off track for each project; then discuss and solve the issues which need further attention.  Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that everyone will get things done without maintaining attention and enforcing accountability.  If you can do this, just imagine how next year you will be able to say that you actually executed on that new strategy or plan, rather than having just talked about it.

Read this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: http://andreajonesconsulting.com/blog.aspx