05-Creating & constructing good solutions

So What? or “Appreciation” – Framework

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Hey all, I found some more information regarding the “so what?” framework if you all are interested. According to mindtools.com, the framework is actually called ‘Appreciation.’

  • Appreciation helps us uncover factors that we might have ordinarily missed
  • Originally developed by the military to help commanders gain a comprehensive understanding of any fact, problem or situation that it was faced with in battle
  • You use Appreciation by asking “So What” repeatedly. This helps you to extract all important information implied by a fact.
  • What are the implications of that fact?
  • Why is this fact important?
  • Word of caution: 
  • Can restrict you to one line of thinking. For instance, once you’ve answered your first “So what?” question, you might follow a single line of inquiry to its conclusion. To avoid this, repeat the appreciation process several times over to make sure that you’ve covered all bases. Alternatively, consider using other problem solving techniques in conjunction with this one to ensure a broad-based approach

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_01.htm

04-Managing a project team

The Gamification of Management?

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In my first semester MP presentation, my team discussed about Gamification and how the Carlos Museum can use those tactics to drive engagement.  In the grand scheme of things, gamification can be used for so much more.

In the article “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!“, the author discusses the gamification of management.  So, maybe he doesn’t use the word “gamification”, but effectively what he is describing fits into the gamification model.  The primary gamification driver in the MMORPG is competition.  A committed player always wants to have the best items possible to maximize all aspects of their avatar (or “character”).  In World of Warcraft, to acquire the best items you need to work together in a tightly coordinated effort with 25 teammates to attempt to slay giant monsters to gain the chance to acquire powerful items to enhance your character’s capabilities.

A long time go, when I played World of Warcraft, I was a Guild Master.  Thinking back, I realize that I was effectively a company manager.  I was responsible for “hiring” players to the guild — which included an application process, interview process, and trial process.  I was responsible for ensuring that on any given “Raid Night” (of which there were 3 per week) that we would have at least 25 people that properly equipped and specialized into the 3 different roles needed to perform the tasks  needed to slay the monsters.  Then on those nights, I was responsible for ensuring that each and every team member was doing their job well (for 4 hours).

Thinking back, there were many more aspects of Guild Management that are more in line with the tasks that a small business owner would perform.  After reading this article, maybe playing World of Warcraft was not as much a waste of time as I thought when I stopped playing!

-Fawad

Uncategorized

How People Solve Problems

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Problem solving is an area that each of us is challenged in every day. It may look different for everyone tactically, but we are all facing difficult problems both in our personal and professional lives. This article supposes that problems can be divided into 4 classes. Each of the classes ranges from a well-defined problem with no solution, to a well-defined solution with no problem. The idea of creative solutioning was discussed some in our joint Strategy lecture with guest speaker Sean Coyne, who shared with us the idea of brainsteering, or focusing our problem solving to a specific problem or task. The article touches on the idea of problem solving via exploitation, or using what you already know, and exploration, or moving beyond what you already know to solve problems. These can also be referred to as the Edison and the Einstein ways of solving problems. Which category do you fall into? Which would you like to fall into? Moreso, which would you like your managers and direct reports to fall in to?
While our day to day lives may be relatively standard and we tend to approach problems the same way, I think this article serves as a good reminder to re-focus our problem solving and figure out which pieces of the “puzzle” we already have, which could change, and which are completely ambiguous. Sometimes the answer lies in just looking at the problem differently.

 

99-Spreadsheet modeling, Excel power users

The Dangers of Excel: A Lesson for Managers

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A Google search on Microsoft Excel results in hundreds of websites that offer advice on Excel. There are hundreds of businesses that can teach you how to use Microsoft Excel and hundreds of thousands of YouTube videos explaining Excel tips and tricks.

Although there are software applications available for accounting, finance, data analysis, project management, and forecasting, Excel is a forerunner for these business functions. Most businesses want their managers to have a basic, if not advanced, understanding of Microsoft Excel.

Yet, there are dangers in relying too heavily on Excel, especially if the advanced understanding of Excel is unknown by the company’s management team.

In “Microsoft’s Excel Might Be The Most Dangerous Software On The Planet” Tim Worstall described when JP Morgan’s CIO (in 2012)  called upon a quantitative analyst, “a London-based quantitative expert, mathematician and model developer”, to create a new value-at-risk model for a synthetic credit portfolio. The analyst’s “advanced” techniques involved copying and pasting data between several Excel spreadsheets. This manual process left room for error, several errors in fact, which cost JP Morgan several billion dollars.

Despite the availability of automated technologies to double check databases and equations (especially when dealing with billions of dollars), top management of large, public companies still rely on Microsoft Excel.

UK Regulators, the Basel Comittee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA), were quick to respond to the incident. In his article, Vic Daniels said the BCBS and FSA “made it clear that when relying on manual processes, desktop applications or key internal data flow systems such as spreadsheets, banks and insurers should have effective controls in place that are consistently applied to manage risks around incorrect, false or even fraudulent data.”

This is an eye-opening lesson for budding managers. A lesson in communication and how to oversee projects worth billions of dollars but also a lesson about understanding the tools a company uses and how they should be used in company projects. To me, the scenario illustrates an important reason for me to learn Excel. With Excel skills,  I can create and manage my own projects as well as double check my team members’ projects to prevent errors such as JP Morgan’s. There are other tools that can be used for managing data but I’m going to start with Microsoft Excel.

business databases, work plans

How to nail your next job (before you even apply)

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Like many of my classmates, a significant reason for pursuing my MBA at Emory is the desire to change to a newer, better and more fulfilling job. So the title of this article by Colleen Egan was an easy grab for my eye. While it’s more like a self-help-bullet-point slideshow than an informative article (“Nurture your Network”!), it did get me to thinking about the state of my job search process. Apparently, I am well behind the times when it comes to marketing myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I do have a LinkedIn account with a slowly expanding network of connections and I even took the time to set up my profile and upload my resume. And earlier this semester, I took advantage of a mock-interview workshop through our Career Management Center. (Which I highly recommend to all of my classmates, by the way.) But that is about the extent of my self-promotion and preparation. I have never posted a comment on LinkedIn, nor have I ever commented on someone else’s posting.

The author cites “DailyWorth” (www.dailyworth.com) career coach Alexandra Levit, saying: “Do a Google search of your name once a month to see if you’re happy with what is there”. Well, I just Googled myself and came up with … nothing. (Unless you count a picture of a 1960 baseball card for the New York Yankees catcher “John Blanchard” that Professor Shanken mentioned in our first night of Finance class. I thought that was a nice “full circle” for the summer semester. But, I digress … ) The article also introduced me to something called Google+ (https://plus.google.com). Not really sure what it’s for, but I’ll do some more digging.

Haven’t opened up my Facebook in several years and have long since forgotten my Instagram and Pinterest passwords. Never “tweeted”. Long story short, my “online presence” is a ghost town. That might explain why I’ve gotten very little response from companies that I’ve applied to. If they were trying to find me online, their first impression was one of frustration.

In addition to social media, Levit also recommends “setting up a basic, but well-done website with contact information, links to your work and professional accomplishments.”

So if I’m really serious about finding that dream job, I need to stop dreaming and start promoting myself.

DailyWorth:
http://www.dailyworth.com/posts/2813-7-ways-to-prepare-for-your-next-job-before-you-even-apply

Reprinted through the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch website:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-nail-your-next-job-before-you-even-apply-2014-08-02

team roles

Key Players That Make Your Professional Circle Well Rounded

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http://www.businessinsider.com/the-6-people-you-need-in-your-network-2014-7

I recently attended a professional leadership forum conference with my company focusing on networking and skill building. My biggest take away from the conference was me thinking about how do I keep my network right sized and diversified within my company. I knew that certain skills, whether soft or technical, needed to always get sharpened, but I had never really reflected on how well rounded my network is until after the conference.

This article describes  6 key players that everyone should have in their professional network. This network really applies to a network beyond your workplace. For us, this certainly means our classmates. Here are the 6 key players the article describes:

The Finance Guru 

This is someone who has greater financial literacy than you. They are someone who will encourages you to be savvy with your finances and make good financial decisions.

The Connector

This is the social butterfly. The one who is always interconnected and can introduce you to other people. He/she is the relationship developer.

The Mentor

The article describes this best with a quote from Christine Hassler “It’s important to choose a mentor who is living a life you respect and want to model — not just someone who has a job or career path you would want,”

The Innovator

This is someone that is always up to date with your industry trends and forward thinking

The Leader

This is someone who you look up to the most professionally. They are people that should be picked very selectively and are utilized for the infrequent major work situations you need consultation on.

The Frenemy

This is someone who has the same career path as you. Its good to have that because competition forces use to be better. In this case your antagonist is your helper.

Check out the article and see who is and who isn’t in your network and try to fill those gaps.

 

07b-Using good information design, charts & graphs

Effective Data Visualization

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One of the most critical items in crafting in effective presentation is the proper visualization of supporting data.  A good picture will both engage the audience and highlight the salient features embedded within the data.  As a scientist, I have sat through numerous talks with poorly executed visualizations—tables overcrowded with numbers (most of which are irrelevant), plots containing too many overlapping and indistinguishable lines, indecipherable figures, etc…  The result of these was, almost uniformly, audiences who were uninterested and unwilling to believe the conclusions because they couldn’t understand any of the data being presented.  Even though there are plenty of examples of what not to do, sometimes it can be hard to find positive examples, especially for presenting the complex data or results that come out of business analysis.  While looking for ways to develop my visualization skills, I recently encountered this blog post: http://www.targetprocess.com/articles/visual-encoding.html, which has a few good rules-of-thumb for creating presentations:

  • Humans do better comparing relative areas, so if you want to map data to a shape, you should map it to its area.
  • Use no more than a dozen colors to encode categories effectively.  If there’s more, it becomes difficult to differentiate them.
  • A diverging color scale should have different colors for positive and negative values.
  • A planar chart is best for representing simple two variable data sets.

As an example of how good data visualization can help build a story and highlight underlying trends and relationships, here are, what I think, are two effective uses of a particular visualization type called a heat map.  In a heat map, data are plotted on a plane (usually projected onto an image of some particular area) and colored according to frequency or some other variable.  This representation helps quickly highlight where important areas (geographic or other) are on the map.

From The New York Times, a good visualization of basketball players shooting and scoring patterns: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/06/11/sports/basketball/nba-shot-analysis.html

And finally, a visualization of where all the action is on a typical World of Tanks game on the Abbey map: http://www.vbaddict.net/heatmaps/abbey/12

 

04-Managing a project team, feedback

How to Give Meaningful Feedback

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Coinciding with much of what Professor Smith taught us Fall semester, Michael J. Maubossin, an investment strategist and author of The Success Equation,  was featured in a video on hbr.org in which he suggests 4 tips to provide meaningful feedback to employees.

  1. Ignore the factors your employees can’t control

    Companies that incent employees with stock prices ignore the fact that stock prices often follow market trends, so it can be an inaccurate measure of a company’s or employee’s success.  Consulting firms  sometimes reward based on days of utilization — a metric dependent not upon performance of the consultant, but upon how many consulting engagements sold by the firm’s salespeople.

  2. Understand the difference between luck and skill

    The author presents a basic rule of thumb: if the person can perform a task poorly on purpose, then the result is likely based on skill. If not, then the result is based on luck. “You can’t lose the lottery on purpose, but you can lose the big sale.”

  3. Pick a metric that is persistent and predictive

    In this context, persistent means that you get the same results time after time, i.e., accountants completing reports accurately and on time. Predictive means if employees do well with that metric, they serve the goal the company is trying to achieve. For example, timely financials correlate with building company value.

  4. Focus on employee behavior and process

    A focus on process ensures the best odds for long term success of the employee and the company and is most conducive to identifying and correcting performance decreasing behavior.

In my experience,  picking a predictive and persistent metric is the most important concept to keep in mind when developing a feedback program. Giving employees clear expectations provides them a means to guide and measure their behavior and allows management to more easily hold employees to the company standard.

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics, team roles, Uncategorized

How to Give Constructive Feedback

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Giving feedback can be one of the hardest things we do as managers or employees. Somehow the word “feedback” has taken on a negative connotation. But getting or giving feedback doesn’t have to be painful — and it’s a skill we are all going to have to learn.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard at my company is the fact we don’t get enough feedback throughout the year.  Many people joke that if they don’t hear any complaints, they just assume they are doing a good job.  But feedback is essential for mitigating problems — and helping employees realize their full potential.

Forbes has a great article on tips to how to make the feedback process better for you and your employees. Here are some of the key tips I got out of it:

1. Be honest. Employees can spot a manager that’s not being straightforward a mile away. Just keep your comments short and sweet.

2. Give real-life examples. Keep track of what the employees is doing wrong or right. It helps you to understand where they’re coming from, and why they’re doing certain things.

3. Lay out a plan of action. Figure out ahead of time how to mitigate negative behavior or reward good work.  It doesn’t help to say “You need to work on this,” or “Great job!”  You and the employee need to put a plan in place that’s actionable, achievable and will help them move forward.

4. Be willing to accept feedback yourself. Employees aren’t perfect. And neither are managers. This helps foster trust between employees and managers if you can take your own advice!

So what’s been your best or worst experience with feedback?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2013/11/19/how-to-foster-employee-trust-and-growth-through-constructive-feedback/

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

Making Stories Soar

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One area that I want to improve is my ability to tell good stories. I tend to rely heavily on my ability to connect with the audience by using numbers/figures but do not spend enough time preparing simple stories that effectively relate my points. Here are a couple pointers to improve your story-telling. Here are 2 simple rules that I found from the executive coaching sit: Essential Communications. Please see below for the link to the website. Stories soar when you follow two rules:

  1. Tell us details of what people did, said and felt. Don’t hover over the forest telling us about the landscape; bring us down onto the forest floor so we can enter the landscape. Give us the leaves and roots and dirt. Details of what people did, said and felt pull us into the story.
  2. Connect the details to other details. The details of what people did, said and felt must connect to and influence other details of what people did, said, and felt. The details you tell us need to feel important. In order words, the details you include must affect the outcome of the story.

Other Tips:

  • If the details don’t connect to other details, cut’em out.
  • Does everything in the story have to be true? The answer is no. But everything in the story has to feel true. The details what people did, said and felt have to create a truth that feels authentic.

http://www.essentialcomm.com/tips/execcoachtips/making-stories-soar-030311.html

MEMBA learning community, Fall 2016- Spring 2017