Onboard or Shove Off

"Not Guilty!" was the verdict passed down at the court-martial. 

 There was a case where a Navy medic was transferred to a Navy hospital on the west coast.  He checked in early and was asked to have a seat.  He waited all day but no one bothered to bring him inside and help him get started.  He came back the next day… and the next.  After showing up every day for over two weeks, he moved back east and took a civilian job in another hospital.  

After receiving over a year's pay and two outstanding performance reviews from the Navy hospital, the medic was transferred to another hospital.  Now, the Navy realized they had paid someone for a job he never performed.  He was summarily court-martialed and because he appeared on time, received his pay, and even received two outstanding fitness reports, he was considered not guilty.

What programs do you have to onboard you own new employees?  Can you decrease your overall costs by getting these employees to peak performance quicker.

This is the middle of my third week with a new company.  I started drinking from the fire hose before my first day.   In two week, I've written a proposal, attended meetings,  built a pricing worksheet, explored several business models, and (almost) completed my first blog.  I feel pretty good about this.    

 Here is what was done to accelerate my onboarding.

Preparation	Let the employee know what is expected BEFORE they start.	All new-hire paperwork was emailed to me prior to starting along with detailed instructions describing  how to prepare, when it is needed, and who gets copies.
Context	Help the employee  get acclimated.	I was pointed toward papers, presentations, and videos to help me become acquainted with our work.
Activity	Give the employee a lot of things to do on day one.	I had many different things to work on from day one.   My supervisor gave me a list of deliverables and tasks that needed to get done.   From this, I could pick out one or two that showed my value right away.
Team building	Show them the ropes.	Since I am a remote employee, I received phone calls from the people that I need to interact with the most on the first day.  I received a warm welcome, a brief review of the culture, the work, and the short and long-term goals.  We talked about how I can make the best impact quickly.   If I were in an office, these discussions would have been face-to-face.
Tools	Give them the proper tools to do the job.	A new computer laptop was waiting for me on day one.  It was fully configured with the tools I need to do the job.

Onboarding when done well improves morale, bolsters productivity, and fosters teamwork.  When done poorly causes negativity, disgruntled staff, lowers morale, and costs you a lot more than just the lost time.   These concepts are applicable to new employees, employees who were recently acquired, and employees who have changed roles or get promoted. 

 This is one of the easiest things to do well.  Can your team afford to get it wrong?  

A tale of two projects

It was the best of times It was the worst of times
It was the age of wisdom
It was the age of foolishness

Recent projects within the Aspect Healthcare Services practice have given me pause to reflect on the overall synergy between the Account Executive and the Engagement Manager.  I will cite two examples illustrating the odd and even rows of the above poem.

In an ideal project, the Engagement Manager is tasked to help write the SOW, then they are expected to deliver the scope defined (and only that scope) within budget and timeline.  To do this, the EM must be VERY knowledgeable about the scope of the project.  When the customer asks for something outside this scope, the EM must politely say NO or exchange functionality for the new request.   If the EM does not say no, the timeline usually goes awry and the customer relationship gets into trouble.   If the EM says no too much, the customer relationship gets into trouble.   This is where the AE earns their pay.  I expect AEs to have weekly (or so) outreach with their active customer to be sure the relationship is not in trouble and, if it is, to help with damage control.  Often the AE only has to show where the EM is working on the best interest of the customer to resolve these concerns.  This single act would have saved several high profile engagements and caused escalation in time to correct issues and keep strategic references.   Similarly, the dearth of this follow-up in a couple of instances has caused us to lose referenceable customers and overspend on the project budget.  

For example, Everyone communicates at least once per week with Customer A.  When something gets off track, we are able to sense the concern with the customer and correct it before it ruins our business.   THIS is the synergy that grows our business.   While it might seem to be “too much” at times, there is no denying it works.

 Alternately, we just lost our shorts on the Customer B project.  This was sold with the intent to be a flagship engagement where we would use Customer B as a reference to open doors for us all over the country.   Instead, we have to hope they don’t complain too loudly and we complete this engagement to the point they continue using our solution.   This probably could have been escalated and prevented if the AE had followed up routinely.  

This approach may not work every time, but it sure helps shift the odds to our favor.   Think about it. 

Effective Email

Email can be a consultant's best friend or their nightmare. The following guidelines help you write efficient emails that get results.



Why are you writing the Email

Before typing the first character, ask yourself

1) Why am I writing this?

2) What results do I want?

Make sure you can state this crisply before continuing. Some of us get hundreds of emails each day. Most of them are important. In order to quickly get a “useful” response, make sure your messages are efficient and well planned.

Think about your email from the receiver’s perspective. Make sure you write the email in a way that makes it simple for the recipient to take action.



What are you writing

There are really just three types of business email.

1. Provide information - “Bill Gates will be in the office Monday at 10.”

2. Requesting information - “Where did you put the ‘Bill Gates’ file?”

3. Requesting action - “Will you call Bill Gate’s admin to confirm our meeting on Monday?”

The first sentence should clearly reveal one of these three intentions. Don’t be afraid to write a topic sentence that states the intent of the email and what response or action is required from the recipient.

The Bill Gates meeting will be held in the main conference room. Please make sure the room:
* is reserved
* is clean
* has snacks on the back credenza
* has a working projector
IM me to confirm all of these have been completed.

Keep everything short and sweet. Save your lengthy diatribes for your marketing efforts.



Write a great Subject line

Make it simple for your recipient to understand the intent of your email and the appropriate response. Compose a subject line that summarizes the gist of the message. Avoid “Hi”, “FYI”, “one more thing”, etc. in favor of a short summary of the most important point of the message.

§ Lunch with Bill Gates rescheduled to Friday @ 1pm.

§ REMINDER: Monday is "Bill Gate’s Day"— everyone needs to dress business formal.

§ REQUEST: Resend Larry Tate zip file?

§ QUESTION: Can we use rolodex photos in our demonstration?

§ HELP: Can you defrag my C drive?

§ IMPORTANT: I have a client situation that needs your attention.

§ FYI: The client has called and wants to work with us again.

§ Thanks for the new liver—works great! [eom]

If you are stating a single fact or asking one question you can use only the subject line for your message. To clearly do this, add an [eom] or (eom) to the end of the subject line to signal end of message.

This lets the receiver see the whole message without opening the email. This is appreciated by people who receive a huge volume of email (me), since it lets them do a quick review of the message without opening the whole body. It is even more helpful since many of us review messages on our PDA and mobile phones.

If you are inviting someone to a conference call, remember many use cellphones and have a very short subject line to review. The location should include the minimal information needed to get on the call. Put the verbose description in the body of the meeting request. In the location, use something like this…



866-784-4549 2744 1920



Brevity and clarity is the key to getting a response

Most of us have received “War and Peace” in email form. In many cases, we have to spend 5-10 minutes reading to find the real message and take action. Alternately, we file the email with the intent of reviewing it later when we have time and it eventually gets lost.

While it is fine to include lots of details, a better approach is to write your summary so it fits on the first screen with no scrolling, then include the details below for those who enjoy knowing all the facts. This ensures the reader will see the key information and provides the supporting details for later consumption.



Expected Response

If you expect a response to your email, a meeting, a status report, a bowling rematch, put that near the top of the message and clearly state when you need it. Most of us are deadline driven and open-ended requests get ignored.

Minimize the work needed to take action on your email by thinking about them as friendly work requests. Ask for what you want, when you need it, and be specific. Include details about why you need it later in the email.



Use Bullets

If you are sending a list of action items, split them into bullets.

The Bill Gates meeting will be held in the main conference room. Please make sure the room is reserved, clean, includes snacks, and has a working credenza.

It is far easier to make sure nothing slips through the cracks when the same email is written this way:

The Bill Gates meeting will be held in the main conference room. Please make sure the room:
* is reserved
* is clean
* has snacks on the back credenza
* has a working projector
IM me to confirm all of these have been completed.



Make it clear why everyone got the message

If you sent the message to a large number of recipients and you expect action from several of them, break out the tasks:

TO: cast of thousands
SUBJECT: RESPONSE NEEDED by Friday COB – Bill Gates Visit
MJ, BVH: Clean your offices
JN: Purchase snacks for conference room
ST: Hide gags and embarrassing photos
XR: Move server to cubicle in the corner

Don’t forget the attachment[eom]

Enough said.



Return the favor in your Response

Respond Inline - Respond to individual requests inline. Use a different color when possible. Add a quick note at the top indicating “responses inline”.

KISS – Keep your response short and simple.



Email is NOT private

Courts have ruled that ALL email, IM, and other electronic messages are the property of the company. Make sure anything you send reflects well on the company and is something you don’t mind someone else in the company reading.



Other good ideas

§ Make it easy to quote - Power email users will quote and respond to specific sections or sentences of your message. You can facilitate this by keeping your paragraphs short, making them easy to slice and dice.

§ Minimize Noise – Don’t reply to an email unless you have something useful to add. Sending notes to an entire distribution list that say “I agree”, “Well done”, etc., are unnecessary and waste time, bandwidth, and sometimes create wrong impressions. If there is a thread starting, delay responding until you can make a useful contribution.

§ Provide Context - If you’re responding to an email that’s more than a few days old or if the recipient was not privy to the original discussion, provide context right at the opening. For example, "You wrote in February asking to be notified when the Bill Gates books are available; here’s a link to the items we’ve now made available on our site…."

§ One theme - Do not mix topics, projects, or jokes in a given email. Inform everyone of Baby Bill’s adorable antics in a different message than the one with the downsizing rumors and budget warnings.

§ We know you are grateful - it’s not necessary to respond with a “Thanks” email whenever someone does what you asked. Save your gratitude for the next time you pass in the hall; On the other hand, don’t hesitate to thank someone for their time if they’ve gone above and beyond and make sure you copy their supervisor.

§ RTFM - If you’re asking for help, make sure you’ve exhausted all the documentation and non-human resources you have at your disposal. When you do ask for help, be sure to quickly cover the solutions you’ve already tried and what the results were.



Use another medium

Sometimes email is the wrong vehicle to use for communications. If you have a message to deliver that is emotional, time sensitive, or could be misinterpreted, email is not the best tool. Often, it is better to pick up the phone or walk down the hall if there is a message that could be misinterpreted. The use of emoticons J, ALL CAPS, and other “cute” items in emails are not always received the way they were intended. Snide remarks followed by a wink ;-) are not always received well. In these cases, it is often better to deliver the message by voice.

Never write an email when you are angry, emotional, stressed, tired, hungry, stoned, or drunk. Once an email is sent, it cannot be retrieved. Often emails written this way can be used as the basis for firing or promotions. When in doubt, don’t sent the email. Sleep on it and reconsider your approach the next day.



References:

Trapani, Gina, Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day, 2007,
Wiley, Indianapolis, IN

Musings on the Boy Scout's latest negative press

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=13&u=/nm/20050330/ts_nm/crime_boyscouts_dc

Douglas Smith's actions will stir more trouble for the BSA. Unfortunately, BSA is his employer. If he worked for WalMart, this would barely make the local news. Since he's with the scouts, it is nationwide. His actions give thousands of legitimate and dedicated and "respectable" volunteers a black eye. That's unfortunate.

Regarding the gay position, I've given this a LOT of thought over the last 8 years. That's when I re-joined scouting. The BSA has an incredibly effective youth protection program that, when followed, makes sure the boys and leaders are not put into a position that could be misconstrued as compromising. Youth and adult leaders are taught to always practice two-deep leadership and to never enter a one-on-one meeting in a closed room with an adult-child. Our troop leaders leave the door open when they are meeting one-on-one. No child is allowed in another parent's tent. The program is tremendously effective for protecting both the scout and the leader.

I don't believe all homosexuals are pedophiles. This guy, assuming he's guilty, shows us all pedophiles are not homosexual. It sort-of shows the two issues are unrelated. I think the "don't ask, don't tell" approach is best. If a BSA leader wants to use scouting as a platform to promote their agenda, it is wrong. I really don't care if it is homosexuality, women's clothing, or the baptist church is higher in heaven than the catholic church (example... don't take it personally). This kind of agenda doesn't belong in the scouts. If the leader keeps his personal life personal, and they are good scouters, they should be given the chance.

Having said that, the BSA can only kick out those "offenders" they know about. If they are doing something to make headlines, they are probably not setting a good example for today's youth. The BSA (and any other organization) deserves the right to ask them to represent our published values. If they refuse, the BSA has the right to kick them out. In short, good leaders set a good example. Bad leaders deserve to be reprimanded. I know for a fact some leaders in my troop have been reprimanded for being too negative. They admitted the example they were showing was inappropriate and have improved their approach.

The media is already started the lynching. This man has no chance and he'll drag scouting along. From what I've read, the BSA suspended this man immediately upon learning about his charges. Watch that get swept under the rug. I learned it costs about $150 per scout per year to provide the program to them. This includes paid executives, maintaining scout camps and facilities, and other costs. The BSA will probably have to spend more money on lawyers and publicity because of the actions of their employee. This is a shame since this money could be used for more productive things.

I feel better now. Thanks for asking.

Thoughts on offshore development

Technology Chef

I was talking to my good friend Tom at lunch today and the subject of outsourcing arose. He made some interesting points and I'm inclined to agree.

The primary purpose of offshore development initiatives is to save boatloads of money on development projects. On the surface, this is good for business. Yet, after considering the hidden costs, I'm not sure this really works.

The typical project using a waterfall methodology involves analysis, design, coding, then QC. Tools and techniques such as .NET and Agile Methods have shrunk the development time by orders of magnitude already. Taking this offshore does not result in a huge savings since development is a miniscule portion of the total project effort.

My experience shows the bulk of the time is spent in design, testing, and pre-deployment activities. Most of these activities are not readily taken offshore because of too little planning and design, and too much conflict between language, culture, and time zones on the back end. Another way to say this is to assert that the design, QC, and Deployment are generally done in-house and this is where the bulk of your costs arise.

Let's assume we send development offshore. We just exacerbated the project communication by introducing culture, language, and time zone issues. This can become expensive. To overcome this, we need to spend much more time and money in the analysis and design phase. Our specifications must be rock-solid and thorough since the developers do not share the context within which the product needs are created. On the back end, we must still conduct exhaustive QC efforts because we don't want to bet the company on a team that has little to lose if it doesn't work. The in-house team must perform more tests and spend more time documenting defects to overcome the language and timezone barriers.

When all is said and done, the actual savings expected by taking work offshore are not realized because the setup and validation costs are so much higher. When this is combined with morale and retention in-house, it make sense to think long and hard before sending the business overseas.