Acceleration & Focus - A Simple Approach to Faster Execution
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The document outlines a presentation by Michael Hannan, CEO of Fortezza Consulting, on improving execution speed and focus through techniques such as project staggering and single-tasking. Hannan emphasizes the importance of organizational focus and throughput in enhancing project performance, drawing on examples from successful companies. Key takeaways include the need for a disciplined approach to task management and creating an environment that encourages autonomy and effective delegation.
Acceleration & Focus - A Simple Approach to Faster Execution
- 1. Acceleration & Focus - A Simple Approach to Faster Execution
- 2. Acceleration & Focus Michael Hannan CEO, Fortezza Consulting A Simple Approach to Faster Execution
- 3. Mr. Hannan is Founder & Principal Consultant of Fortezza Consulting, a best-selling author, professional speaker, and innovator of techniques to drive unprecedented improvements in project portfolio performance. He has coached and trained thousands of people at all levels in what you will learn today. Mike also serves on the board of the nonprofit, Project Management for Change (www.PM4Change.org), and is the lead author of the book, The CIO’s Guide to Breakthrough Project Portfolio Performance. On the personal side, he is a happily married father of three college-age men, and a 2019 world-record-setting, national-champion track athlete. About Your Presenter 3
- 4. 4 My promise to you for this session: Help you improve personal, team, and organizational focus—in a simple, measurable way. My wild-eyed stretch goal for this session: Help you maximize your impact as leaders, so that you might advance humankind through the pursuit of dramatically higher levels of organizational performance. Copyright © 2019 Fortezza Consulting, LLC
- 5. On September 11, 2001, the largest sealift rescue initiative in the history of humankind was carried out, rescuing over 35 times more people per hour than the next largest — the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk. Youtube search “9-11 Boatlift” What Do These Four Things Have in Common? 1. = 500 people The 9-11 rescue throughput 5 Dunkirk’s rescue throughput
- 6. In the past 10 years, a major pharmaceutical company found a way to double the number of life-saving drugs it brought to market, with no increase in cost. 6 2. What Do These Four Things Have in Common?
- 7. In the span of just a few years, Amazon went from deploying new software < 10 times a day to deploying new software more than 7,000 times a day.3. = 10 times a day What Do These Four Things Have in Common?
- 8. In its first 8 years, SpaceX made space launches 5x less costly, and in the next 8 years, expects to make them 100x less costly. 4. Cost per lb to Low-earth Orbit What Do These Four Things Have in Common?
- 9. PMI’s Pulse of the Profession: 2011-2018 9 Source: Project Management Institute, February 2018
- 10. Complex problems need complex solutions Avoid These—Even When They Seem Appropriate Embrace These—Even When They Seem Inappropriate Inherent simplicity can always be found Conflicts require compromise solutions Every conflict can be removed; we just need to find the right assumption to challenge People are blameworthy—and need to be held accountable! People genuinely want to help make the organization better Saying “I know “ Yes, we know a lot…but every situation can be substantially improved…there are always things we don’t yet know! “How might we…?” Mindset Needed to Achieve Breakthroughs
- 11. Technique Authority Required Level to Apply Origin(s) Primary Purpose Project Staggering Executive, PMO Leader Across the organization or project portfolio Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) • Improve Portfolio Throughput ACCLAIM Focus & Flow™ None Individuals & Teams of any size Lean, Agile, Psychology, Theory of Constraints • Improve Project Speed • Improve Project Reliability • Improve Portfolio Throughput The Two Most Powerful Techniques to Boost Focus 11
- 12. Technique 1 Project Staggering 12 Technique 1
- 13. Three types of tasks, requiring three different resources: ▪ A – Planning, Scoping, Prioritizing ▪ B – Architecting, Developing, Integrating, System Testing ▪ C – User Acceptance Testing The sooner we start …. Three simple projects Seven weeks each Project Staggering: Simple Example 13
- 14. Delay Delay Delay High resource utilization Delay The Illusion of Progress 14
- 15. 15 P4 8 6 4 Simultaneous Projects Staggered Projects Simultaneous vs. Staggered Projects Copyright ©2018FortezzaConsulting,LLC
- 16. • This one technique alone has sometimes doubled or tripled the throughput of project completions. • Agile tenets are consistent with staggering, but staggering is not an Agile requirement; the organization must apply the necessary discipline and tools to implement staggering. • Executive stakeholders must be convinced that a project start date weeks or months in the future will result in an earlier finish. • Staggering helps expose hidden resource bottlenecks, helping to focus the organization on how it might get even more projects done. • Individual efficiency must be subordinated to the goal of maximizing throughput. Project Staggering: Key Takeaways 16
- 17. ACCLAIM Focus & Flow™ 17 2x 3x 4x 6x 8x 12x Technique 2
- 18. Task-switching Game Round # 1 Round # 2 18 TASK SWITCHING
- 19. Typical Game Results 19 DataPoints First round results with task switching Second round results with focus Time to Complete Almost twice as fast! 2σ ~ 90% 2σ ~ 60%
- 20. 20 • Block off calendar time • Turn off Outlook pop-up notifications • Put your phone on silent • Turn on a “heads down” auto-reply email • Put a sign on your door • Work from home, and/or work non-standard hours • Noise-cancelling headphones A Few Simple Ways to Drive Single-Tasking
- 21. 21 Crafting a More Disciplined Approach for Single Tasking • Theory of Constraints, Psychology – Single-tasking is a highly effective way to minimize lead times for human tasks. – Maximizing flow across an end-to-end process (system) can only be done once the system constraint is identified. • Lean/Kanban − Visualizing the actual flow of work—especially for workflows that aren’t inherently visual—is critical for team members to identify impediments and to experiment with improvement ideas. − Enabling the system to “pull” work, vs. having work assigned or “pushed,” tends to improve flow while empowering teams. − Minimizing batch sizes—ideally down to a batch size of one, or “single-piece flow”—can generate impressive flow improvements. − Keeping “work in progress” (or WIP) at or near optimal capacity helps maximize flow. • Agile/Scrum, Psychology − The team can find ways to improve flow more effectively than any single member. − The team is much more motivated when working under a disciplined framework designed to foster team autonomy.
- 22. How Do We Know Whether Single Tasking is Actually Happening? Number of “Doers” 8 Ensure that this number… 6 …is never higher than this number
- 23. Previous productivity level Impediments; lapses in single-tasking Improved single-task discipline Over 2X! 2 months Example: 40-person Software Development Team
- 24. WIP Limits vs WIP Targets The Limitations of WIP Limits • “I’ve set a limit on each of you, and you all must comply!” • Some workers feel incentivized to “game the system.” • Not as conducive to a “How might we…?” culture. • No good way to know where to set the limit. Why a WIP Target Based on Single-Tasking Is Better • Encourage a target based on single-task behavior. • Allows total flexibility for teaming up on tasks. • If you’re way over or under target, the team can see it and explore why. • Fosters experimentation. • “We trust you, and want to help you pursue ever-higher levels of team performance.”
- 25. Additional Guidance • Breaking down tasks into granular subtasks is key—but must be done with as little additional overhead burden as possible • Marking a Task “Blocked” vs. “Escalate” • Marking a task “Blocked” indicates that progress is halted or slowed significantly for some reason, but that the team thinks it can remove the block without any management intervention. • Marking a blocked task “Escalate” indicates that the team needs management intervention in order to clear the block • Task sizing • Each task card has a field for “Size,” which can be used to estimate the # of hours (or other numerical sizing, such as story points) • While this can be useful, we never want any task owners to “pace themselves” to this estimate; rather, we want to encourage early delivery whenever possible • Task sequencing • Sequencing of high-level tasks are done in the PM’s project plan (Gantt chart) • Sequencing of task-board tasks must be done manually by placing predecessor tasks before successor tasks in the To Do column 25
- 26. Checklist for Effective Task Board Operation 26 Happy to send you these checklist documents—just email me at [email protected] to request!
- 27. Staggering + ACCLAIM Focus & Flow 27 Staggering A B C Staggering + ACCLAIM Focus & Flow A B C A B C A B C A B C A B C A B C 4 Project Completions 7 Project Completions Assuming a 35% improvement in the flow of task completions…
- 28. ACCLAIM Focus & Flow: Key Takeaways 28 • Effectively addresses two key issues inherent in knowledge-work • How to delegate effectively without micromanaging people • How to provide/receive frequent, meaningful feedback • Can be applied to any environment, as long as four conditions exist: 1) There is a pool of resources that can be managed as a group 2) We can ensure that there is always a ready supply of fine-grained tasks 3) Task owners can “pull” tasks when ready, one at a time, in priority and sequential order 4) We can get closer and closer to our target ratio of task owners to tasks in process—or “WIP Target.” • Complements key characteristics of Agile/Scrum • Self-organized Scrum Teams, user stories, story points, backlogs, burndown charts, retrospectives, customer transparency, scope buffering, and more • Offers an option to replace time-boxed sprints with single-piece flow to improve velocity and predictability of execution
- 29. Wrap-Up: Summary of Key Benefits 29 • Two Concrete Ways to Pursue Aggressive Goals • Helps Your People Showcase Their Value as High-Impact Players • “Working Smarter, Not Harder” • Achieve Speed and Reliability Gains Without Additional Resources or Overtime • Gives Your People More Autonomy to Do Their Jobs • Allows PMs, Resource Managers, and Leads to Plan Better • Allows Task Owners and Teams More Freedom to Execute More Intelligently • Allows Executives to Better Align Execution to Capacity • Helps Foster a Stronger Unity of Purpose at All Levels • Lower Stress and Better Health for All Staff • Promotes Personal Development • Helps Your Organization Thrive
- 30. Michael Hannan Founder & Principal Consultant Fortezza Consulting [email protected] wwwFortezzaConsulting.com