Management Methodology for Technical People (VI) - Task Management

To get things done and get results is the landing point of management, and it is also the most important standard and basis to verify whether the management planning is reasonable and the team building is effective.

Come from work and go to work. Never create a mechanism for the sake of creating a mechanism; every mechanism must have practical value.

Since mechanisms are scenario-specific, when the scenario changes, the mechanism has to be upgraded as well. Revisiting and learning the mechanism means extra overhead, so each mechanism has a cost to maintain, and if it is not upgraded and updated as the scenario changes, it will become a meaningless mechanism, and over time it will become common: whatever mechanism is available, but the execution is not good

Stage

• Before the event

  The most important question for managers to answer is what needs to be done, which one to do first and which one to do later, that is, sorting out the priority of tasks, which corresponds to “prioritization” in management

• In the Matter

  Ensuring that things move forward according to plan, which translates into “effective execution” or “project management” in the narrow sense

• After the fact

  To consciously summarize the lessons learned and form some “rules” and “practices” so that similar work can be done better and more smoothly in the future, corresponding to the management of the "process mechanism "

element (e.g. in array, in programming, in programming)

• slight or important, urgent or non-urgent

  For each specific team, there is a limit to the amount of work that can be done at the moment, and simply increasing concurrency does not make the team’s output more efficient

  • Prioritized decision-making steps

    • Critical Emergency Quadrant

    • How to determine if a job is important and urgent

      If you do, does it benefit a lot, the greater the benefit the more important
      If not, is it a great loss, the greater the loss, the more urgent

    • Common scenarios

      Divide daily work into two cases: one is planned and one is unplanned
      For the planned work, you need to focus on how much value and benefit it has in a planning cycle, and schedule in tasks that are of sufficient value to continuously advance
      For unplanned work, since it is an unexpected situation, the first step is to judge the interruption i.e. there are arrangements to immediately follow up the new situation. Interrupting an existing arrangement will definitely affect the work at hand, that is, it will affect what would have been gained.

    • Steps

      First of all, judge the priority of the work to specify their own plans. For the work within the plan, see if the benefits are large enough, the greater the benefits the more important, the greater the benefits, the greater the need to give matching priorities, resources and attention; relatively small benefits, put into the todo list, as a to-do task
      For unplanned work, see if the loss is large enough, the larger the loss, the more urgent it is. If the loss is large enough, the task is scheduled as urgent, with “stop loss” as the core purpose. If the loss is manageable, put it in the list of planned work, and use the gain as the measurement indicator.

  • Decision Points

    • Goals need to be consistent

      As mentioned earlier, judging whether a task is important by looking at the benefits, what frame of reference should be used to measure the benefits?
      The answer is goals, which contain our most important demands and expectations over a period of time, and are the axes of measurement that affect the size of our work gains. The clearer the goals, the stronger our sense of direction at critical moments.

    • The evaluation latitude of the task is flexible

      For a task, the three elements of progress, quality and effectiveness can be mutually exclusive, so when disassembling a task, different expectations of progress, different requirements for quality and different expectations for effectiveness can lead to changes in expected time and priority

    • Communication is indispensable

      Superiors are more likely to tell you what they want than to offer to tell you what they are willing to trade, not exactly because they are “profit-oriented,” but because it is not their job to assess the impact and offer the appropriate solution, which is something you know and can do.
      Superiors can not judge how big the impact on your i.e. arrangement, you need to give an assessment, if you do not say anything, the default is no impact.

• Process Management

  • How to ensure effective project execution

    • Sufficient Conditions Perspective

      Just list all the points for effective execution and follow them, but it’s not realistic

    • Necessity Perspective

      Although we cannot give all the conditions for effective project implementation, we can certainly put forward some points in long-term project management, and as long as these points are not achieved, the project will be difficult to be implemented effectively

  • Four Barriers to Effective Execution

    • unclear objectives

      • Unclear and unmeasurable goals
      • Objectives are not aligned and have deviations
      • The target has changed and there are no synchronized related people

    • Absence of General Manager

      • Three questions

        • Is there a clear leader for each team involved in the project
        • The person in charge and all project team members, are they clear about the individual aspects of the person in charge
        • Whether the project has a sole general manager and whether the general manager is effective

      • Two easy areas of ambiguity

        • Inconsistent understanding of “responsibility” among principals
        • Total person in charge is invalid or missing

    • Lack of mechanism for effective operation

      • Question

        • Some managers have seen some good people’s excellent performance, too superstitious people’s initiative and career level, once the problem, always feel that people can not. In fact, the ability level of team members is normally distributed, even if it is true that people can not, from not to line also need the process, at this time is the time when managers should do something
        • When people don’t work, they like to use processes and mechanisms. As a result, managers develop a full set of processes for their teams to follow, and because of the high cost of learning and implementation, it is painful for employees to follow, thus causing the processes and mechanisms to sleep

      • Summary

        • Too much reliance on human initiative, lack of process and mechanism
        • Although there is a mechanism, there is no one to monitor the implementation
        • Employees are reluctant to perform even though there is supervision of the implementation

    • Inadequate communication

      • Lack of proactive awareness and communication
      • Insufficient awareness of notification and failure to notify all relevant personnel
      • Insufficient awareness of the closed loop, broadcast out, the other side received by default

  • The four elements of effective execution

    • Clarity of purpose
    • Clear responsibility
    • Sound mechanism
    • Communication in place

• Process Mechanism

  On the one hand, many managers hope that a lot of management work can be guaranteed through processes and mechanisms to improve their management efficiency; on the other hand, they are at a loss because a large number of processes and mechanisms are lying in the document and sleeping.

  • Steps of process mechanism establishment

    As managers, trying to get employees to share the work we have at hand either by laddering or by process mechanisms

    • The so-called rely on the gradient, that is, the team has a very high degree of competence within the people who can help us to deal with this matter
    • The so-called relying mechanism is to design a set of programs to specifically respond to the problems that arise in a certain scenario, and use this set of programs to guide employees to do this kind of work
    • If the original intention is talent development, then it is reasonable to go and bring employees along to develop the ladder. But if the original intention is to reduce the burden of managers, that instead should rely on the mechanism. And, training echelon is always far water, rely on the mechanism to solve the problem at hand is near thirst, how good the echelon can not mention the role of the mechanism

  • The process of establishing the authorization mechanism

    • Clearly defined objectives

      Clarify what problem in what scenario the change mechanism is intended to solve.
      One of the major characteristics of the mechanisms is that the scenario-based characteristics are very obvious, because they are generated to deal with specific problems in specific scenarios, such as the service alarm mechanism

    • Refine the key points to deal with the scenario

      Distill the key aspects of responding to that scenario from you and experienced people, so the distillation of these key points will be much easier if there are successful experiences.
      It is not recommended to organize a detailed operational documentation, and a step-by-step complete documentation is more important than the key point refinement, which will make the implementation costs lower, but also more operational.

    • Identify the supervisor

      That is, who will ensure that the mechanisms are implemented, and at what point will the key points be checked, and how well each process and mechanism is implemented, and who will check and confirm

    • Evaluate operating costs

      Confirm that the mechanism is operational for the implementer, that it was created to simplify the work, and ideally to achieve “autopilot” for management, and that if the creation of the mechanism results in higher operational costs for the implementer, it is necessary to reflect on the rationality of the mechanism

    • Consensus Building

      Communicate and get consensus with relevant executors

  • Principles of process mechanism establishment

    • Operability

      That is, the principle of simplicity, that is, the mechanism should be based on the principle of the lowest learning and operating costs, which is the most important principle, if the mechanism established does not have operability, then even if the managers feel perfect in themselves, the more problems they can cope with and solve, they should also be decisively abandoned

    • Hit only the key points

      To establish the process mechanism, it is not necessary to describe all the details in full, no one likes long words, especially technical people, you just need to tell everyone what to do in those few key points

    • Clearly defined to the person

      Principle of accountability. The question of who will follow up on each key point should be clearly agreed upon, and cannot rely entirely on human consciousness

    • Practical principles, to upgrade with the scene change

      Come from work and go to work. Never create a mechanism for the sake of creating a mechanism; every mechanism must have practical value.
      Since mechanisms are scenario-specific, when the scenario changes, the mechanism has to be upgraded as well. Revisiting and learning the mechanism means extra overhead, so each mechanism has a cost to maintain, and if it is not upgraded and updated as the scenario changes, it will become a meaningless mechanism, and over time it will become common: whatever mechanism is available, but the execution is not good

  • Frequently Asked Questions about Process Mechanisms

    • Is the more mechanisms the better

      The mechanism is not more the better, but the less the better. This and the mechanism of the principle of simplicity, practical principle of the same line. The establishment of the mechanism does not solve the problem, the implementation of the mechanism to solve the problem, and the establishment of the mechanism, the implementation and post-maintenance are costly, so do not greedy more

    • People are reliable or mechanism is reliable

      Human performance is more volatile, the point of the mechanism is to go to the lower limit of ensuring things when people are not reliable

    • The mechanism is reliable enough, is it not necessary to motivate

      Mechanisms are a lower limit to ensure things are done, and are not a substitute for incentives

• How to execute efficiently

  A company owner once said that a competitor’s team was 996 every day, so he wanted his team to be 996 as well.
  The question is, what does he hope to accomplish with 996.
  He actually did not know why he wanted 996, just wanted everyone to work hard, as for what purpose to achieve, he was not clear.
  Remember, 996 is only a means, and the means must serve an end, and when the end is not clear, the effectiveness of the means can not be judged. We often rely on the so-called “taken for granted” to make decisions, often fail to achieve the desired effect, and even contrary to expectations, the only effect is the stage of comfort

  • Efficient execution = individual capacity * cooperative effectiveness * directional effectiveness * working hours

    Many managers have put the focus on the length of work, which is a general incompetence, tired of the three armies

    • Individual capacity = strength * willingness = capacity development * employee motivation

    • Cooperation effectiveness

      Through the division of labor so that everyone can work together in one place, while relying on the trust and tacit understanding accumulated in general to make the team have a good level of collaboration

    • Directional validity

      • The problem of talking about implementation in isolation from the goal

        • Incentive failure

          • Work repeatedly switched, the previous discussion evaluation design development have become a sunk cost
          • Time is getting tighter and the challenge is getting bigger
          • Employees think management is not thinking clearly and question management’s ability

        • Collaboration disorders

          • Clear and cognitively consistent goals help maintain a unified work pace
          • Lack of clarity in goals can lead to inefficient communication

        • Busy and ineffective

          • Clearly defined objectives
          • Define the metrics of the goal