Posts made in March, 2009
This week on Boagworld.com
Paul obviously ran out of interesting people to interview this week and so rolled out the perennial plan B. Me.
If you want to listen me talk about the joys of Project Management the checkout the latest boagworld.com podcast.
http://boagworld.com/podcast/158/
Read MoreSXSW ’09
Unfortunatly I didn’t make South By South West this year in sunney Austin, Texas. I have been able to catch up though thanks to the efforts of some of the Headscape‘ers that did make it along.
For three different slants on the check out the musings of Dave, Craig and Paul.
Enjoy.
Read MoreWarm body syndrome
We’ve all been there. There is a hole in your team, a job that needs to be done. Maybe somebody has moved on leaving a vacancy or your activities have expanded to such an extent that new skills or more resource is needed. And what’s more, you need it now!
The temptation is to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible. The first person who is willing and able is given the job. The nearest warm body is plucked out of the air and put in place as soon as possible. You just succumbed to ‘warm body syndrome’.
Ok, so you might get lucky. Somebody was in the right place at the right time and they are perfect for the role. They have all the skills, they have the temperament, you get on well, everything is a roaring success and all live happily ever after. However, sadly, this isn’t the norm. A simple rule to remember is; “just because they can, doesn’t mean they should.”
A few things to bear in mind:
- You are not doing anybody a favour by asking somebody to do a job they can’t do.Â
- You are not helping anybody out by agreeing to a request from somebody to do a job that they are not able to do.
- Making a wrong decision is expensive!
- Making a wrong decision is waste of time!
- Making a wrong decision just upsets all involved.
- Making a wrong decision will mean you just have to go through the whole process again.
It’s best to take your time over such things. Don’t appoint somebody just because there is nobody else. If they are not right for the role then that’s it. End of story. Remember that undoing this decision is going to be a drawn out and painful process. It’s worth taking your time and getting it right first time.
This can be difficult. There is a temptation to either put somebody in post because they really want the role. Or to appoint because you really need the position filled. Â But it is best to not appoint at all then to make the wrong decision. Taking your time and waiting for the right person may mean that the existing team need to work harder for a while. It may me somebody in the team doesn’t get the promotion that they have been after. It may mean the new initiative that you want to kick off will need to wait. But all these things are better than the alternative.
Resist the quick fix. Take your time. Get it right.
Read MoreSolutions not problems
It’s very easy to indentify when something is wrong. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small one person task or a large project being undertaken by a whole team of people, finding issues is normally… Â no, I would say, always possible; even easy to do. By spotting a problem you are nothing new. You are not doing anything different you do not stand out in any way. Solutions on the other hand are a rare commodity.
During my spell as the technical team lead at Headscape I tried to install something of a motto into the team. “Everything is possible, there is always a way.” And a few variations on that theme. When a project manager, or a client would approach me with a new piece of functionality or a new project or even just the beginnings of a new idea I tried to always approach it from the point of view that whatever they were asking for was possible to achieve. It was my job / my teams job to find the solution.
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