05-Creating & constructing good solutions, 99-Applying business intelligence, business databases

Data’s Credibility Problem for Business Intelligence Users

1 Comment

Data driven decisions are the basis of finding solutions that will solve any problem. Utilizing the BI tools are an everyday affair for me, which can often have repercussions should the information be inaccurate. Before we can apply BI to decision making, there is a need to analyze and ensure the integrity of the data.

HBR had a good article regarding the time lost due to looking, identifying and correcting errors in data sets. Time is of essence when it comes to project deadlines and there is nothing I rather not do, than waste time. Companies need to meet deadlines and they give there full trust in data sets. If an error comes up at the last minute when conducting analysis, we often look to quickly fix the data set without fully addressing the root causes.

Previously working in the retail clothing environment, many issues would come up regarding data integrity of our systems. Much of the blame would come back to the IT team and they would try to fix it themselves without going to the respective department who owned the data set. Not only is this inefficient but does not encourage collaboration and communication.

The solutions to this issue is better communication between the data creators and users. Too often do we put a band aid on a mistake and never go to the source. The focus should be shifting the responsibility from the IT team to the managers of data sets. This article gives examples at Chevron and the processes we should be implementing to ensure the right decisions are made with the right information.

I invite others to see if they have utilized these techniques in their companies through their management. What works best for your teams when these issues arise?

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, 07c-Telling stories, storyline structure

Storytelling for the number cruncher

5 Comments

As someone who works in Excel everyday and prides myself on an ability to crunch any numbers or run any analysis, creating a “story” and selling that to an audience doesn’t come naturally. For me, I’d rather use a line graph or bar chart and let that do the convincing. But if Brandon Smith taught me anything, it’s that using a story works for persuasion.

So I came across an article written a few months ago in HBR by Harrison Monarth (author of The Confident Speaker and Breakthrough Communication) where he writes about the power of storytelling as a strategic business tool. An example he uses to illustrate the power of storytelling is from the latest Super Bowl commercials for Budweiser. In one advertising study looking at the effectiveness of ads based on content or structure, a researcher at Johns Hopkins noted “regardless of the content of the ad, the structure of that content predicted its success.” So I’m thinking: it’s not what you say, but how you say it? Monarth concludes by writing “A story can go where quantitative analysis is denied admission: our hearts. Data can persuade people, but it doesn’t inspire them to act; to do that, you need to wrap your vision in a story that fires the imagination and stirs the soul.”

Working in the healthcare industry, I found it particularly interesting when Monarth notes an example of how patients change their behavior for the better based on stories their physicians tell them, rather than presenting the data.

Does anyone have specific examples of storytelling in a presentation to actually change behavior or implement a proposal? I’d love to use these tactics, but am still a little skeptical my company’s executives could be moved to action by a story vs. data. What works in your industry?

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation

11 Tips for Calming Nerves Before a Presentation

6 Comments

I know that many of us are working on improving our “delivery,” and I think the tips provided in a recent Business Insider article are interesting. I’ve heard most of the suggestions before (i.e. being comfortable with the material you’re presenting and exerting confidence), but some of them were new to me. I really like the three audience truths:

  • One: They believe you’re the expert, so don’t tell them otherwise.
  • Two: They want you to succeed, so they’re on your side.
  • Three: They won’t know when you make a mistake, so don’t announce it.

We have some really good presenters in our class, so I’m curious if anyone has any personal tips to share?

99-Spreadsheet modeling

Excel: The Hammer to Every Business Nail?

2 Comments

My organization is a small firm engaged in supplying doors and hardware to the commercial construction industry, so we have little need for capabilities related to Excel, right? Well, not exactly….

Leadership at my company is aging and is mired in the view of technology from a decade ago, but they are in love with Excel (although they are only familiar with the most basic functions and capabilities).  Their solution to EVERY issue is to use Excel spreadsheets to find solutions, manage information, or make a decision. In turn, those of us that are tasked with executing and managing these issues have begun to refer to Excel as “The Hammer”.  You see, even if a bullet proof case can be made for managing information through Access, SharePoint, or other industry specific software, leadership wants to use Excel. After all, it is the hammer to every nail!

This leads me to one of the main reasons that I feel that improving my Excel spreadsheet skills will be critical: efficiency. Efficiency with Excel allows me to better handle my workload, more effectively represent the data I have compiled, and more quickly derive time sensitive conclusions to complex issues. Currently, I feel like my skills lead me to taking circuitous routes to reach my destinations, so this is the reason my goal is to spend the summer improving efficiency. There are countless Excel methodologies and formulas that I plan on skimming briefly to gain an understanding of their power, but I intend to focus my personal journey on isolating the key skills such as the top 20 list and polishing my techniques.

One of the techniques that I will be using this semester is to learn by teaching at my workplace. Few of my coworkers and direct reports have Excel skills beyond rudimentary data entry and I have been looked to as an “expert” in the past. Although I hardly deserve the expert label, I find that teaching the software allows for introspection that reveals my weaknesses. In the past 2 weeks, I have spent time with experienced and beginner users working through the basic methodologies and applications for pivot table use. Pivot tables allow our estimators to estimate more quickly, our project managers to more accurately manage material, and our engineers to more effectively isolate and coordinate the details of a project. My goal is to employ my “learn by teaching” idea throughout the summer, hopefully resulting in not only an increased skillset that I can leverage moving forward, but also effecting positive change on our organizational efficiencies.

I invite any comments on my plan or the nature of my post. If you have never tried it, experiment with learning by teaching and see if it works for you. Time to get back to swinging my hammer…

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation

Three Public Speaking Secrets

2 Comments

TED Talks certainly holds a library of great presentations given by  some great presenters. Drake Baer share with us in this Business Insider article, “3 Public Speaking Secrets from the Most Successful TED Talks”, what he finds as the 3 public speaking secrets from TED Talks presenters.

We’ve been taught various tactics for how to deliver a great presentation, and you’ve heard all of this before.  And although it’s best for presenters to incorporate everything we’ve already learned in MP and throughout our career and education, for a novice presenter like myself, this article really highlights to me the three most important things to focus on when developing my presentation skills, from a public speaking perspective.

1. Tell them a story

This article states that you connect with people on an emotional level when you tell them a story- it helps to build a connection when your audience is able to relate to what you’re saying.  Gallo believes that the most successful TED Talks are 65% story, 25% data, and 10% building credibility.

2. Create “emotionally charged events”

An “emotionally charged event” is described in the article “as an incident where you experience shock, surprise, or fear”. This creates a trigger in your brain that remembers this experience.  We learned a similar technique called creating urgency in our presentations. Do we all remember the trailer from “An Inconvenient Truth” about global warming to create that urgency?  The article recommends that in every presentation, you create a way to present the information in a way that is new, novel, and unexpected.

3. Use the rule of three

This rule has probably been engrained in us for a while. This will help structure the presentation as well as help people remember it, since it is easier to remember information given at 3-4 chunks at a time.

Even from a presenter perspective, I believe that these three “secrets” will be very helpful when preparing as well as presenting the presentation.  Stories help connect with the audience, but it help better organize and build on or relate back to the story throughout the presentation.  Creating urgency or “an emotionally charged event” will allow you to remember why you’re am presenting in the first place, as well as help with transitions when structuring the presentation. Using the rule of three will also help with the organization and flow of the presentation.  It will also help me to be sure to touch on three key points for every topic I have.  One of my goals is to rely less on my rehearsed and memorized presentation, and not get caught up in missing a word that I should have used. Instead, I want to be able to focus on preparing the  delivery of my three key points.  I think focusing on these when first preparing my presentation, as well as developing my presentation/ public speaking skills, will be very helpful.
Do you agree with these three secrets to successful presentations? If you could add one more “secret” to public speaking, what would it be?

Link to full article: http://www.businessinsider.com/public-speaking-secrets-from-successful-ted-talks-2014-3

04-Managing a project team, team dynamics

Did Netflix reinvent HR?

2 Comments

“Candor is not just a leader’s responsibility, and you should periodically ask your manager: “If I told you I were leaving, how hard would you work to change my mind?”

This is just one of several unusual or surprising policies or questions posed in a Powerpoint presentation shared by Netflix CEO and Chief Talent Officer. I find it interesting and relevant to share with all of you because I think these notions of being consistently honest with ourselves and our colleagues goes against what we inherently believe, which is that good things will come to good people.

Netflix encourages speaking up both as an employee and a manager. If you don’t feel you are getting the most out of your team, it is encouraged that you find new team members who will outperform the ones you have, even if they are doing just fine. As an employee, you are rewarded for “sustained A-level performance, despite minimal effort,” which I find a little infuriating. Imagine a scenario where a coworker rarely came into the office and rarely contributed in meetings, while you worked long hours and coordinated large meetings, but due to some arbitrary scale of success you were terminated and your colleague was not. Or, even worse, imagine watching that happen from afar. I would feel paralyzed, unclear how I should behave or react.

Netflix also promotes a process-free (or limited) environment where employees are authorized to spend within their budget, make decisions on assignments for which they are ultimately responsible, and cut much of the red tape that paralyzes other businesses. How does this continue to work for Netflix? Are there employees just that much better at communication, following the prescribed guidelines or role descriptions, or is it something else? I think empowering employees is huge and can have massive implications for eliminating much of the red tape  we have all experienced.

The rest of the presentation, along with a Harvard Business article, can be found here. I could spend all day detailing the rest of the Netflix value system, but instead look to you for your thoughts on what Netflix is doing, how sustainable it is for the long-term, and if any of these policies or lack-of-policies are things you would adopt or wish your organization would adhere to?

99-Spreadsheet modeling, Excel resources, Excel shortcuts

Some Excel Resources to Get you Started

Leave a comment

Those of you choosing to focus on your spreadsheet modeling skills this summer (and everyone else who hopes to devote some time to that at some point) should download the materials I’ve just added to our Blackboard site. (You’ll see a new section, Excel Resources, in the left side-bar.)

The main deck, the “Three Hour Tour,” is an enormous collection. For some of you, all you really need may be found in a small number of slides, for example:

  • The “Top 10” and “Next 10” lists of Excel skills that are essential for MBA work are found on slide #162.
  • Lists of print and web resources for learning and using Excel are found in Appendix 3, starting on slide #193.

Also, for those of you looking for keyboard shortcuts, those new resources on Blackboard include a compilation of several sources’ recommendations and cheat-sheets for Excel and some of the other MS Office applications.

I’ll contribute some more Excel content here in the 05-Spreadsheet Modeling channel of our blog, but of course part of the point is for you to do the same – please share your own discoveries and experiences, and get some discussions going here and elsewhere on the blog.

07c-Telling stories, metaphors, storyline structure

90’s Reference, Caveman Stories, and Pigs in a Blanket

7 Comments

Storytelling seems to be the stuff that mermaid tears and unicorn dreams are made of but there is an innate link between storytelling and the human condition as it relates to the work place and beyond. As I read this article, I couldn’t help but think of Tim, the Tool Man Taylor, and the deep conversations that he would have with his half-faced neighbor, Wilson. Tim, who could be quite dense in his relationships at home and at work, would talk to Wilson about his troubles. The neighbor would always recount a story in order to get Tim to realize the error in his ways. How did Wilson convey information successfully and incite Tim to action? Read more to find out why the mind has evolved in such a way that stories make much more sense to us as humans than mere facts and data.

This article discusses the evolutionary adaptations of the human mind through the lens of storytelling and how these specializations help us today in the workplace and beyond. The brain and the way we think – the mind – is considered an organ that is subject to evolution just as other organs. The evolution and natural selection of better acclimated minds that understand and construct stories allowed us to survive better than our predecessors.

Since, it is supposed that, we began communicating by using glances, gestures, and basic sounds, this became the groundwork for emphatic storytelling. As we incorporated language with the gestures, the information exchanged became much more intelligible and memorable than mere facts. As a simple example: imagine a leader of a tribe calmly, without gesture or intonation, says: “at 1,500 feet north-west, there is a tribe that wants to kill us and take our land.” He conveyed the correct information but did not rouse his compatriots to action, he did not gesture where the enemies were, and he gave no context as to what type of people they were about to battle and why anyone should care. All of this is conveyed through gesture, intonation, and emotion – all aspects of storytelling.

Think pigs in a blanket: Pigs in a Blanket without an attractive vessel of flaky buttery goodness, lukewarm mini hotdogs dislodged from a vacuum-sealed plastic bag aren’t very enticing but, nonetheless, an integral part of the all-American snack favorite. Similarly, important numbers, facts, and data sets mean very little to the vast majority of those we may come into contact with throughout our careers without giving them a reason to digest this information. We must find tactful ways to wrap these bits of knowledge into descriptive, savory, and meaningful anecdotes in order for people to enjoy and successfully consume the pairing.

Favorite Excerpts:
“To weave a good story, the storyteller needs to develop the capability to construct fairly complicated inner representations of goals, intentions, and emotional states of real or fictional characters”

“empathy and the ability to understand ‘other points of view’ are necessary for the working of our narrative mind”

ToM – “Theory of Mind” is that we know and acknowledge that other people have their own minds. We can also step into their shoes, empathize, react, and step successfully out of those shoes in the end. This is also used to create metarepresentations. Metarepresentations occur when we imagine five different scenarios before going into a tough meeting with someone. This is the human mind’s way of telling stories to itself in order to prepare for upcoming unpleasant situations and has served our species well for evolutionary purposes.

A successful company should be one that focuses on creating environments where there is a community of storytelling that allows for collaboration and recombination of skill sets and new ways to solve problems.

Real world examples:
Novartis restructured its building in Basel so that the work of each individual could be watched, talked about, and replicated. They called this a “knowledge campus” and guess how the information was transmitted: through authentic communication and storytelling – not through static, out of context presentations.

Pixar built their existing offices around the notion of information exchange through storytelling focused on collaborative efforts and recombination of ideas and backgrounds.

Yang, Chulguen (Charlie). “Telling Tales At Work: An Evolutionary Explanation.” Business Communication Quarterly 76.2 (2013): 132-154. Business Source Complete. Web. 14 June 2014.

Thank you in advance for humoring my metaphors.

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.emory.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=d017ff20-1bf6-4bdb-9641-493eb889fb0d%40sessionmgr111&hid=119

04-Managing a project team, team roles

Finding or Acting as a Mentor

8 Comments

In my career thus far, I’ve been in mostly start-up environments that lack a formally structured mentor-mentee program, but I’ve still had the opportunity to discover how important it is for growth. My career has exploded when I’ve had the opportunity to work with a mentor and, conversely, grown stagnant when I’ve simply worked for a boss.

This article by Rachel Ensign of the Wall Street Journal takes the point of view of someone looking to climb the corporate ladder, seeking out a mentor. You and I are more somewhere in the middle; many of us have direct reports or are managing teams, but are still in the early stages of careers.

I’ll pose these questions as conversation starters:

  • How many of you have a mentor rather than a boss (it’s possible to have both)?
  • How did you find/develop that relationship?
  • How many of you take an active role in being a mentor to others, past the required exercises of formal reviews?

Any time I interview for a job, “Who would serve as my mentor?” is one of my questions. The worst feeling in a job is just doing the work and feeling no professional progress with no one to talk to about changing the situation (or that person not listening).

A link to the original article: “http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303404704577309750220810364“

MEMBA learning community, Fall 2016- Spring 2017