Get the work done

We will meet the boss man at late afternoon. Sp and the princess are not available because of their meetings. I realize Sp is not a bad guy after all. Involving him in the meetings of the S projects has made him happy now that he is involved. I think he can help me manage the princess as well. I think bringing him into the loop is good overall as the boss man will also know the problems we face especially with their team.

Managing contributors is getting to be a crucial part. Often people think that writing emails and making long PowerPoint presentations show the project is moving. To a certain extent it may be true but it is also important to have face to face working meetings and interactions. One important element is to determine what is the next step as explained in D. Allen's book Getting Things Done.

I think this is a key skill which I think E.de Bono talks about known as 'operacy'. It is more like the ability to get the work done. We are all good at some skill like writing emails or making presentations but the core skill of moving a project forward or 'operacy' may be missing. This is the key point that I believe is lost in the company. But the project management methodology is a step in this direction by providing a structured methodology to use.

I have to finish the project plan for the meeting today so I have to go to work early. We hope to have cleared the budget mess last Friday with the phone conferences and meetings. We agreed to reduce the budget at our end to account for the needed work until June. Hopefully our counterpart at head office will take up the slack and put the amount needed from July to December in his budget.

I think our accountant committed the mistake by not having the account created in our system. But I guess the issue is bigger than that because it's more a governance issue which is tied to managing work and its corresponding costs. But at the end of the day the customer should not suffer which is what will happen if this mess is not cleared. Now I understand the frustrations of the boss man with our department.

Meeting challenge

I have the a meeting with the boss man tomorrow morning. It is our monthly session. Philip invited the other managers to attend. I don't feel very worried because I met with each of them in the past weeks. It will be the first time I would meet with them again since last year where we had a few unpleasant moment. Now I hope it will be different after initiating more meetings since last March to improve our communication. Today I will meet with them again for just a few minutes to touch base so I can avoid any embarrassing moments tomorrow.

I don't know why Philip invited the other managers. It is not part of our monthly sessions. Originally it was scheduled during the boss man's weekly meeting with his managers. We hold a separate session for our area with him and don't mix the two. The series of meetings that I have initiated is a working meeting where and plan and thresh out issues. So tomorrow will be more like a reporting session to see if anything was missed.

Philip's invitation to the manager set me thinking again. Did the boss man instruct him to do it? Or did my rival persuaded him to do so? Or maybe it was Philip himself as he is not part of the regular sessions with the managers? I think he will not send out the invitation unless someone urged him to do it. But it will be a test of sorts to check if the regular sessions with the managers is improving the communication. I still need to complete and plan out the meeting for tomorrow. The presentations have to be completed by today.

I attach a map of the book 'The New Alchemist' by Charles Handy. I made it long ago to remind myself of the features that bring about change.

False Alarm

The meeting with the customer went well early yesterday morning. There were moments where we had a few misunderstanding with the boss man but I was able to recover in time. The boss man was even trying to help and all his staff were in awe of him. But he handled the meeting very well and he guided us to a good conclusion. Still a lot of work to be done by his staff but he did it in a gentle way. After they finish their requirements, the ball goes over to my court and I have to prepare the team who will work on this project. The head of the team is a bit difficult to work with and her key staff will be leaving soon. So it will be another challenge for them to keep it on track. Some initial dates where set and hope to meet them. Look likes the game is now afoot.

I will be sending out an email on the individual meetings we would have to the boss man’s managers. It is a formal announcement that we will be actively striving to improve our communication. There seems to be a breakdown and I seem to hold the key to its solution simply by talking to them. If ever I get into a conflict with the managers then I bring the case up for arbitration with the boss man. So things seem to be turning our way again despite the nasty meetings in the past month. I have to carry the ball more often instead of letting Philippe do the work. I think I now have a clear idea of my role in the scheme of things. I should let him be the functional expert while I am the manager or coordinator.

The boss man mentioned in the meeting that we all learn from our mistakes and it was a good sign for us to make mistakes especially for my case where the first phase did not turn out well so it was stopped. I think I am getting to understand more the way to work with him. It just means following his whims, which admittedly are more sensible than most managers do. It is just the conflict with some of his staff and the politics of certain people that have confused me in the past. So now the game has been raised to a different level and I hope to be prepared.

I have a speech contest tonight and it’s actually my last project before I earn a certificate on communication. We will also have a meeting with our management on the end of this month. It will be about the retrenchment going on and I think this will be the first time we will get an indication of the fate of our department. I do not think we will be affected based on the feedback I get from people. The supposed job offer that I thought the boss man was making was actually a false alarm. It is the creation of a new position that needs to be approved by the gods at headquarters first before anything can be done. We will find out soon enough.

Meeting Anxiety

Today I have a meeting with the dreaded ‘boss man’. The president of the company we support. Actually he is very decisive and brilliant based on any standard. It is surviving the meeting that matters. My challenge is to rise above the technical areas and focus more on the business side especially on management issues that needs decision. This is an area I am weak on or lose focus on as I drone more on the technical domain, which leaves the others especially him irritated. So this becomes my personal challenge today and I have prepared an array of topics, which will keep him focused on the right direction instead of on me. Hence, focus on the issues and the process.

In the meeting will be my so-called rival who is jockeying for position. I believe she is trying to get my job by spreading some rumors around especially my impending retrenchment. But this is not the case as she is in the same boat as myself. In fact, speaking with my former boss who is more attuned to the goings on at the top level, it looks like she maybe in more trouble than myself. This again is another area I should take out of my mind because it is irrelevant to the task at hand. Thought like this taint the imagination and color my viewpoint and affect the actions I take. I should focus more on the main task and avoid mental distraction and, yes, faulty thinking.

I have been attending training seminars these past few weeks. Sometimes I start reacting emotionally when some attention is focused on the other attendees. I feel that I should get more attention with my status and years of service. This is another ego problem that I also have when I report in the management meeting. As the boss man has mentioned, I should be less emotionally and coldly assess the situation. I have pinpointed this fault which is more on my emotional reaction. From the self-help books I read, it is because I am more right brained than left brained. Perhaps I am just more bird-brained.

From a spiritual point of view, the Buddhist call this the ‘’monkey mind" – where the mind flits from one idea to another, driven by sensations perceived by the senses. Nowadays we are more sophisticated where we have things like cognitive therapy or cognitive restructuring or psychology to help us understand and control the mind. Perhaps this is why the self-help book proposes the early morning practice of meditation. I guess it is this area that is getting the most attention.

I am less tense after speaking with my former boss. His comments on the restructuring exercise are similar to my thoughts. Perhaps I will escape the ax after all. At least give me a year or so until 2008 so I have more preparation. I think the major decisions will be coming out in the last quarter of 2007 and not the first or second quarter of this year. Let’s see…