WM #9.5: Planning ahead (The Critical Path)

(I had promised to keep these Blogs short, which my spouse so purposefully pointed out to me after the last one; it was a tad overkill creating a glazed-over look on his face - so I cut it in half. This is probably "Blog suicide" but since I'm trying to keep this an active post for students taking my Fundamentals of Management courseI decided I'd better edit this particular post - my apologies to those who have been reading and are confused by this recent edit.)

WM #9.5: How to avoid a train wreck - Plan Ahead!

Through the identification of "critical path" (often with the use of a Gantt chart), a manager defines one sequence of events that take the longest and cannot easily be reduced in size, speed, or time. In other words, what ensures that the project is accomplished safely, correctly and with the least amount of risk if things go wrong. An easy example to illustrate this process is envision constructing a skyscraper; the main structure or foundation must be completed first before any of the plumbing, dry wall, or windows can be installed, hung, or inserted. Henry L. Gantt was the first to develop this very simplistic idea in the form of a bar chart that lists activities and dates enabling projects to be accomplished by visualizing the project activity duration.

Understanding what takes precedence in a project to ensure that other's activities can take place either concurrently or right after one is accomplished.

In a complex society where work is accomplished not just by one person but many, this type of planning is paramount to project delivery and meeting business objectives while ensuring safety to the humans performing and receiving the new service or project. Especially in contemporary society where everything seems to be done YESTERDAY! Time is literally money in every aspect of business life and often corners are cut for the sake of reducing the amount of time to save on costs. This is wrong but often done in many instances of human economic development and a topic for another blog.

Why did this train drive through a tornado (see previous post)? Probably because they didn't consider the consequences (assessed risk) and maybe had never done it before (Train Engineer says, "We're heavy with umpteen cars weighing 15 tons apiece - a tornado won't be a problem"). I bet they'll never do that again! Now I gotta go change my shirt - I spilled grape koolaide (again, refer to last post)!

WM #9 : Plan AHEAD!

My kids always tease me that I can't keep a white shirt clean because of my preponderance to dribble whatever I eat or drink right on the front of it. It's called a shelf people! And for a buxom broad like me, well, it's an inevitable problem. My biggest (no pun intended) problem is being somewhere that I don't have a way to cover up, clean, or replace the offending shirt that has been the recipient of a recent DQ chocolate dip cone dribble or a dollop of mustard that has escaped from my Nathan's hot dog! So planning is everything and whoever invented those Tide Clean Stix should receive the Nobel Prize for invention and innovation! Whenever I go somewhere that requires some semblance of professionalism, I always plan to bring a sweater, jacket or - even better - a scarf; versatile, easily tucked away, and so many styles and designs to match a multitude of outfits. I KNOW that I will be needing something to cover any "oops" dribble if there is any beverage or food consumption in my future!

So you may be asking yourself, "what's this got to do with management?" Planning people! I repeatedly discuss this concept with students and how often managers are caught ill-prepared for difficult situations. While we cannot possibly plan for every contingency it is important to have every possible problem or mishap planned for with the hopes that it will NEVER happen. The above video illustrates a situation that likely many train engineers had hoped that they would never have to be confronted with but unfortunately, did! A tornado struck this train quickly and with incredible fierceness that serves as great YouTube fodder but think what the cost was to the train company and town for clean-up, recovery of equipment, loss of life and limb, and the logistics required to get the train track passable again. With all of the recent catastrophic weather conditions around the country (fires in SW, tornado in Springfield MA, flooding along the Mississippi) businesses must be prepared for every possible catastrophic scenario to keep their business afloat.

While working on a large project management assignment as a consultant, I was struck by the planning required to launch a complex, multi-layered, global information technology project. Included in this  project was a vast number of human resources who worked to analyze, define, develop, test, and communicate a project of this size. Hundreds of people worked on their individual piece of the project puzzle while ONE incredible woman - the program manager and my boss - kept it moving. Her job was to orchestrate the entire process. I learned a lot from her and realized that while technology is a wonderful and powerful tool to accomplish the most mundane and tedious tasks, the number of people involved to ensure that it works correctly for the end-user (like you and me) is daunting! We consumers nearly subconsciously use technology to pay our taxes, purchase shoes, or check savings account balance.

With all this technological development, contingency factors of risk must be considered. What does that mean you may ask? The "what if" scenario. "What if" the organizational network fails or is not adequately stress tested for the deluge of users on April 14th and while uploading your taxes the US Government server crashes - Yikes! What if you find the perfect Agatha Ruiz de la Prada toddler shoes at half price (regularly $85.50) for your daughter on Zappos and the server fails to upload your credit card information? Not quite a catastrophe but seriously irritating! And all of the sudden you are seeing a sudden spike in your bank credit card balance but unable to confirm it through your bank's help line because they aren't able to track down where the transactions took place because their server is down? Lack of planning and foresight on the part of the business and it's developers is what has happened. While it may not seem a train wreck, it can make or break a business.

See the next blog WM #9.5: Planning ahead (The Critical Path)

What is weird management?

You may be asking yourself - what is "weird management" and why should I care? Here is why:
1) Weird, according to my circa 1998 Webster Dictionary states: "Having an extraordinary or strange character." (This is right up my alley).
2) Management, according to Peter Drucker the guru of management (in my humble opinion)  is succiently described as: "Management and managers are the specific need of all institutions, from the smallest to the largest. They are the specific organ  of every instituion. They are what holds it together and makes it work" (Drucker, 2008, p. 2).

So this is a blog about the extraordinary "organ" called management. How is that for weird! And a catchy title in the competitive blog-o-sphere. As a teacher and student of management I am always struck how few people understand and practice this most basic and fundamental skill and process. Essentially the act of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Now while that may not seem so "weird," what is weird is how few organizations recognize the necessity of this very basic task and try to sustain it and support it. And likely that is why it is so often diminished because of its "basic" nature - people assume they can manage because they can breath, walk upright, and chew gum at the same time - WRONG!

Now full disclosure - I am NOT an expert on management. At 48 years of age and, although I've spent countless hours studying, researching, teaching, and practicing management, I am not remotely close to the required time to be considered an expert (1 million hours should do it!). I decided to start this blog as an opportunity to share and impart some of my experiences as a student (Ph.D.), teacher (adjunct faculty at Eastern CT State University), and practioner (multiple positions in private, non-profit, and public sector jobs). Also, to learn from you!

After hearing that my only sibling had his second heart attack (first at 36, he's now 45) yesterday on Easter Sunday, I realized time is short. If it hadn't been for a well-timed phone call from my father and the decisive actions of my 13 year old niece, he would likely be dead. My niece saved her daddy and helped me to recognize the need to get off my butt do what I do well before it's too late:  write, teach, and advise. I've spent the last few years languishing in the hopes that opportunities would present themselves to me instead of the other way around - I'm taking charge as well as you all should before our time is up on this crazy planet!

So this is what you can expect from these posts:

• Weird and obscure facts about management.
• Mistakes and successes in management.
• Case studies 
• Weird analogies and insights relating life to management
• Perspective 
• Resources

Again - I know you are probably thinking - hmmm really? What does this mean for me, I'm not a manager. WE ARE ALL MANAGERS! We manage our lives every day and work, experience, suffer through management that regularly mess with our heads. When was the last time that you went into a restaurant and thought after getting a cold cheese burger and fries or was confronted by a rude server: "WOW! Somebody needs to tell the manager"? Or how about when you are working on a project at work or a  social club, church committee, college class project and realized the person who was leading it had no clue how to manage people and tasks!  Everyone can benefit from this multi-faceted 'organ' that enables us to move effectively and efficiently through this chaos called life!

So there you have it - this is the end of this first diatribe - now it's up to you to decide whether you think it's worth the effort to read (I promise, I'll keep future posts shorter).

Welcome to Weird Management!

Lisa D. McRoberts Ph.D. (abd)
Adjunct Professor of Business Management
Eastern CT State University

Reference:
Drucker, P. F. (2008). Mangement (Revised Ed.). New York, NY: Harper Collins.