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Monday, April 28, 2008 |
Rolling up your hoses when you're not fighting fires No one beside me on the flight to Houston. Went through a lot of work.
Somehow I picked up a couple of David Allen's books (Getting Things Done, or the GTD method). I've also found a software application called Thinking Rock that helps implement the method. There are several steps to the method, but most revolves around writing down all thoughts, organizing your work, and working on things that matter.
Here's a post from Kelly of the GTD company. Reminds me of the very first management consultant talk I every attended where he talked about the "tyranny of the urgent." She says, roll up the hoses when you're not fighting fires. Here's her post:
We were in a staff meeting the other day discussing some of the finer points of David Allen's 3-Fold nature of work. Part of the Doing phase, the 3-Fold nature describes how you spend your time:
Doing Pre-defined Work (choosing from what's already processed and organized on your lists and calendar)
Doing Work as it Appears (responding to latest, loudest and new opportunities)
Defining Work (your own processing and reviewing time)
Everyone has a mix of all three of these choices. It won't necessarily be an even split of your time and attention. Depends on your job, and frankly your personality. I often like to do bite size chunks of doing work as it appears to stay interested and engaged in something that's taking more mental effort. It's a balance though and only you will know if you are in/out of balance with any of these choices.
If you think about it, even someone whose job is about doing work as it appears, like a fireman, is still working on being ready for the fire while they are not IN the fire. In fact, their ability to deal with that fire effectively requires them to have spent time getting their gear ready so that they can move quickly.
It's no surprise, whenever I cover this module in a GTD class, the majority of the participants find themselves spending more than than they think they should in Doing Work as it Appears and not nearly enough time in Defining Work. the tricky part about it is that each of these phases can really affect one another as well. The less time you give yourself to define your work, the less defined work you have to choose from and the greater the tendency to do work as it appears.
11:03:37 PM 
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Just before we did the Automation World Webcast on Wireless a couple of weeks ago (you can view archive at www.automationworld.com) I received a curt email from Dick Caro asking why we had Ron Helson of the Hart Communication Foundation speaking on WirelessHart and no one from ISA100 committee speaking on ISA100. Actually I took several calls the day of the Webcast. Well, I've been reading the debates on the ISA100 members email list, and I continue to see why I didn't cover it. They still have a long way to go. I can't believe there is a marketing committee for the standard (chair is a supplier), yet, there is no standard. And there won't be for almost a year at best. The debates are intense.
Meanwhile, in an obvious attempt to assure the user community that there is a standard with products available that works today--WirelessHart--, four suppliers banded together to issue a press release. They are ABB, Emerson Process Management, Endress+Hauser and Siemens. Here's a short version of the press release:
As leading suppliers of Hart-based process automation products, we are frequently asked about our position on the WirelessHART standard, which was released as part of the Hart 7 specification. We would like to take this opportunity to share with you our enthusiastic belief that WirelessHart is the solution that will help customers enjoy the benefits of wireless today and for years to follow.A multi-vendor, interoperable wireless standard, WirelessHart was defined specifically for the requirements of Process field device networks. The standard was initiated in early 2004 and developed by 37 Hart Communications Foundation (HCF) companies. WirelessHart was approved by a vote of the 210 member general HCF membership, ratified by the HCF Board of Directors, and introduced to the market in September 2007. The companies comprising the HCF represent 90+ percent of the field devices and control systems sold in the industry today. HCF membership is open to any company wishing to join. The HCF technology is also available for license to non-members.Following its completed work on the WirelessHart standard in September 2007, the HCF offered ISA an unrestricted, royalty-free copyright license, allowing the ISA100 committee access to the WirelessHART standard.The HCF team which developed this interoperable, multi-vendor standard took great effort to ensure it would provide a solid platform for the future.All of these factors and more give us great confidence that the WirelessHart standard will fully meet the needs of the process industries for a wireless field device network -- now, and for many years to come. (To learn more, go to http://www.hartcomm.org/ and view the white papers and articles on WirelessHart.)As automation suppliers, we have a responsibility to innovate and deliver technologies that help customers realize new levels of performance, while ensuring open, interoperable technology platforms. This requires a dedicated focus on customer needs, and a spirit of collaboration to co-develop these game-changing, yet easily accessible technologies. Our customers expect no less. WirelessHart is just such a technology.We are all delivering WirelessHART products this year and fully expect other HART member companies to do the same. Customers are gaining benefits today, and interest from the industry is extremely high. We hope you will soon realize the benefits too!
11:01:42 PM
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Made it to Houston. Plane was a little late--plus an aborted landing and allemande around and make a second attempt. At hotel by 9 pm. Only person I saw that I knew was Dan Hebert from Control. Two guys from CBT, the ABB distributor in the Dayton area were on my flight. Interesting talk. (Allemande is a square dance term where you hold hands with your partner and turn around each other. If you've never square danced, you've missed a great time.)
Forums galore
I've been just passing along marketing info about the Packaging Automation Forum on May 20 in the Chicago area that we are sponsoring with Packaging World magazine. But I recently looked a little deeper into it and it came to me that this is as much about general automation--or at least machine automation--as it is specific to packaging (don't tell PW editor Pat Reynolds I said this ;-) ). But look at some of these presentations:
"Using Packaging Controls Technology as a Springboard to Supply Chain Efficiency" speaker from Unilever;
"MES Implementation" speaker from Stirling Medical Innovations
"A China Perspective" speaker from China dairy company
"Automation Strategies vs. Manufacturing Priorities" speaker from Genentech
Plus a bonus workshop and demo from the ISA88.05 committee on the 19th.
I am moderating the afternoon session on May 20. Like I said, there's a lot of information for general machine automation in the forum. Don't be scared off by the "packaging" part of it. What we're doing in some cases is bringing the packaging people into the leading edge of machine automation.
If you can't make that one, then ISA is sponsoring a Manufacturing and IT Forum in Cleveland on May 20-21. Looks interesting. There are four panel discussion general sessions (I'm moderating the one at 8 am on Wednesday May 21). There will also be a number of breakout sessions. Some of the speakers come from Suncor Energy, Saudi Aramco, Dow, P&G and Delphi.
10:59:38 PM
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Rockwell watchers like to see if any "outsiders" can stick with the company when they come in at a high level. Certainly some have not fit in for one reason or another. But Kevin Roach joined the company from a high profile position as a vice president of GE Fanuc Automation (today known as GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms) and was put in charge of the software and information business. He has not only lasted, but he's methodically putting together the pieces of an impressive portfolio.
Rockwell has known for at least 16 years that the software and information technology part of the business just doesn't fit well with its industrial control distributorship channel. So one problem that the firm faced was how to sell to this new market without facing a rebellion from the channel. Several approaches have been tried, and now Roach is assembling a sales and marketing force as part of the software business. Bob Honor, another GE Fanuc defection, is heading up sales for software. He's putting together a team that knows how to sell to the upper tiers of the customer company.
I had an opportunity to chat with Roach last week about the Incuity acquisition. What he had to say was instructive as we watch for future moves. By the way, he used one of my favorite Web 2.0 terms--"mashup"--and also said "persistent" a lot.
Roach started with the part of building a tightly integrated suite of applications under the FactoryTalk banner. Incuity brings something called Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence to the party. Along with that, it brings connectivity to just about any controller that would be needed to connect an enterprise. The business intelligence space is essentially a way of gathering data (in our case from the factory) and displaying the resulting analysis in dashboards or other easy-to-read metric displays.
Roach isn't thinking only EMI, though. He first brought up the idea of a mash up of Incuity (data) and Pavilion (advanced process control, simulation, modeling). I asked how long for such a mash up. "Our usual product development cycle seems to be 12-18 months," he replied. So, think of the things you can do by taking the data from the Incuity connectors, historicizing them through the OSIsoft partnership making them "persistent," and then dropping that into a model with the ability to simulate and predict. This could be very interesting.
The growth path for Rockwell Software, according to Roach, is existing product development, partnering with top quality leaders and acquisitions. Keith Nosbusch, Rockwell CEO, had told me last fall in an interview that this was one of the top growth areas targeted by the corporation. It is certainly on the path to fulfill its promise.
2:49:30 PM
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I haven't written on leadership for a while. After
pondering the relationship blog I posted a couple of days ago, I
thought about how some of these ideas (Intimacy probably doesn't work
in every situation, for example) contain a lot of meaning that would
help our leadership. Now, we are all leaders somewhere--or at least we
should be. As I've been in leadership roles in business, church,
politics and soccer, I've had ample opportunity to reflect on where
I've fallen short. Therefore, some of these relationship ideas would
have helped me greatly in some of my roles.
Resentment.
This is a poison that starts as something small and builds up into
something big. Resentment is
dangerous because it often flies under our radar, so that we donâo[dot accent]t even
notice we have the resentment, and our partner doesnâo[dot accent]t realize that
thereâo[dot accent]s anything wrong. [This works in leadership roles, too. If you
start to resent some of the things others do--perhaps another committee
leader, for example--this will build up negative feelings that will
derail your leadership authority.]
Jealousy. Itâo[dot accent]s hard to control jealousy if you feel it, I know.
It seems to happen by itself, out of our control, unbidden and
unwanted. However, jealousy, like resentment, is relationship poison.
[Similar to resentment, leadership often includes power. Sometimes you
become jealous of someone else's power. These emotions can ruin all the
good work you're doing.]
Unrealistic expectations. What basic expectations we do have, we must
communicate clearly.
[Observe and know the people you are leading. Don't expect them to do
things beyond their capabilities--at least until you provide the
training and environment for them to excel.]
Not making time. [You get off on your own things and forget to
listen to those around you. If you are in a leadership position, make
time to work on it.]
Lack of communication. This sin affects all the others on this
list âo[per thou] itâo[dot accent]s been said many times before, but itâo[dot accent]s true: good
communication is the cornerstone of a good relationship. [This
is huge. The best business leaders were great communicators. Perhaps
Ronald Reagan's greatest strength was his ability to talk directly to
the nation and describe his vision. Let people on your team know where
they need to go.]
Not showing gratitude. [A handwritten note of thanks or a coupon
to In Good Taste is one of the strongest leadership actions. (For those
of you reading this outside Sidney, Ohio, then substitute your favorite
local cafe.]
Bonus sin: Stubbornness. [Once I stubbornly held on to
an idea of how to market a product I was in charge of, and we failed.
You've got to be open to new ideas and learn flexibility in the face of
change. You also must learn that you don't have all the answers. Listen
to the team and adapt to new directions.]
1:55:40 PM
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© Copyright 2008 Gary Mintchell.
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