Category Archives: Management

#142 Using frameworks

Send to Kindle

Frameworks are useful, but they are often misunderstood. There is no shortage of frameworks, every self respecting organization has one. We have one too! Why are frameworks loved and why are they ignored, even mocked?

Frameworks are excellent analytical tools. They help you understand the problem domain. They help you see the problem in different ways, and more quickly. As you know, speed (to insight) is king in the modern workplace.

The problems arise when you expect frameworks to be applicable out-of-the-box or to be predictive. Frameworks cannot do this, no matter how good they are. If you have found one, please let us know in the comments below. You cannot force yourself or your organization into a framework.

The real problem is that you want to abdicate your responsibility to think. In the need for speed, and the need to be productive, you try to give up thinking, but you are trying to automate the wrong things. Automating your thinking and decision making takes time to get it right and will work for only those situations that can be well defined and reasonably static.

So go forth and harvest frameworks. Adapt them, evolve them, create your own. Use it to improve communication, collaboration, and planning. That alone will save you a lot of time.

Share

#136 Managing interfaces (additional insights)

Send to Kindle

I’ve talked about interfaces in earlier blog posts (#84, #89, and #94). I had a few additional insights that are worth sharing.

If interfaces break down (between marketing and sales, between sales and finance, between customer and vendor, and between engineering and product marketing), there may be more than one reason at play:

  • Different world view. If both parties have a different view of the problem to be solved and a different view of their roles in solving those problems, you can expect nothing but communication gaps.
  • Different processes and methods. Or, no process and method has been defined. Structured interactions may sound restricting, but it actually speeds up processes and outputs.
  • Different levels of capabilities. Staying on top of industry best practices and tuning the solution to the problem needs to be an ongoing effort. If one of the parties knows a lot more than the other party, communication gaps are bound to happen.

List specific points for each of the above and communicate hard until each point has been addressed. Clarity should be non-negotiable. Once a common understanding has been reached, there is more than one way to solve a problem. Pick the solution that benefits the customer the most.

Share