Game in the Brain

I’ve documented a lot of projects, of them 3.5 were GANTTed in a particular level of Detail. This was the Job Order System using Gforms and Sales Activity Reports. You’d think it would be easy making GFORMS and GSHEET automation – NOT when your computers are from 2004-2008 with passmarks average at 1500 (dual core) and about AVE 3GB Ram.

Some key metrics:

1. Running Days of a Project 44-60 days. 
2. Total Manhours about 40-50mh. 
3. 30-40% is the BUY IN and Stakeholder meetings and feedback. 

It highlights my Capacity which is why I’ve Shifted to Teaching more and Reviewing my Staff’s Implementation. Its not that easy, my team don’t take religious documentation. They don’t see it the way I do – where the Act of WRITING is the Value Work.

Which I need to think of a Better way to Engender. But of course I’m no genius, 80% of my strategy is being Example, the rest is being a Good person: Let people try, Correct them, and Help them see the Value of the Technique and Change.

Still It seems My 5-7 hours of Work a day leaves me about 25-35 hours a Week of Capacity. This Last IT Ops meeting I’ve tried to HAND OFF the projects to the IT. I plan to follow up 2x a week and ask them to Update the GANTT about it.

In a MONTH of 24 days thats about 144 hours. thats four projects of 72 hours each. While the GANTT got the 40-50 manhours it took to move a project to 1 phase (out of possibly 4), there is a 30% TAX of inefficiencies and setbacks. OH there are a lot of set backs. Remember I’m basically a GM and ART grad playing – Plant and IT Director.

I may have READ NEARLY ALL THE BOOKS (when they all start sounding NOT NEW), and continously study under our Mech Eng Master’s Professor, and all the other Skilled people in the company – One thing about the more skilled people in the company, they dis-proportionally have a lot of RESPONSIBILITIES but not much AUTHORITY.

I’m asking them to TELL ME THE PROBLEMS. No problem is too small, if it stops them from Execution they should let me know. I know its some face saving and they don’t want to let the boss worry about small problems but we are a Young Team. We need to talk about the small problems because I need to know their limits and Track their progress.

I’m not going to let them fall in the same predicament as ME – NO MENTOR, NO GUIDANCE, UNSHARED BURDEN… Thats a bonding experience I have with the other leaders in the Company. That we feel like we had to learn everything on our own and that shouldnt have been the Case. It was my dad’s legacy to Throw them at problems and hope they catch it. I hope to UNDUE that fear and anxiety that style of leadership caused. (Yes my dad threw me in the pool, thats the kind of guy he was. My son didnt need to be taught that way and he can and loves swimming).

THOUGHT occupying a SPACE outside the MIND is the Work.

Writing, Programming, Craft, Art, or any MEDIA where a THOUGHT begins to exist outside the MIND is where the MAGIC happens. When it exists outside the mind – the feedbackloop of self correction occurs more intensely and rapidly. Documentation is not a CHORE – its one’s thoughts taking no EFFORT to exist and all that freed-up energy becomes reallocated to Identify its flaws, improvements, and bounds (see bounded rationality).

The mind is not a great workspace, it takes mental energy to maintain multiple ideas and to see their Bounds (Iterations of cause , effect, forward or backwards in time).
If you feel like you wrote, drew, programmed, crafted, said, etc… something stupid – and it sounded different in your head  – thats the freed up mental resource putting more perspective to that thought.

We’re not in a position to Measure a Level of Knowledge Work and Assign a VALUE to it.

80/20 Rule of Templates. 

Templates and Standard Protocols mean 80% of the WORK is already filled out and Known and all you really need to bring up is 20% of the difference from this project from another.

We do system furniture aka Standard Cubicle Furniture and a TEMPLATE and proceedure for  its deployment and design, with a RUNNING LOG of all the issues and problems that have been encountered in the 28+ years of the companys existance would be hella useful but No. Instead of developing the KNOWLEGE that would eliminate 80% of the commonalities between most of the Tasks of a Particularly Category or Discipline, we never developed such  a practice to do such and thus have to do EVERYTHING FROM SCRATCH and UNCERTAINTY.