Litmus Questions for Measures

I stumbled across these questions in an old file on my U: drive. They reminded me that as we develop metrics, we really do need to keep a laser focus.

Anyway, here they are; perhaps they'll help you as you put together metrics to monitor the health of your organization or the progress of your program or initiative.

• Will you crash if you don't monitor this gauge?


• Does it help the organizational unit reach it's vision?


• Does it help manage the business? Can you make decisions based on it?


• Can you make changes and improve your results based on it?


• Is the data worth collecting? Does it actually tell you anything?


• What are the things that keep you up at night? Are they covered by your measures?


• After two months away, what do you really want to know?

What do you think?

Location for our May 2007 LANT OPC Mini-Conference

Looks like we're headed to southern Connecticut! I see Mystic tours and Native American gambling. Oh, and performance excellence work, too.

Tools & methods to get things done

While I teach time management and organization, I'm always struggling with it myself. Here's a list of twenty tools & methods to help with to-do lists.

Working on our location for the May conference

Aaron and I are stuck at SFO, waiting for our flights. As much as we wanted to leave northern California a little early, we're both on red eye flights and were unable to make changes to an earlier flight.

I hate flying east.

I'm working on the costs for our Atlantic Area OPC conference. I am building a spreadsheet; you'll find the spreadsheet here. When you get a chance, please take a look. We're going to be making the decision based on best value to the government. To me, best value means a comparative low cost, no outrageous costs for any particular office (ie, it costs one office $3K, but everybody else gets away for $900), and wear & tear on the body (Hono would be out; sorry, folks).

I will be soliciting your input at some point soon. As always, questions/concerns, shoot 'em my way.

A good time in Petaluma

Wondering what your colleagues are doing? Wonder no more.

A bunch of us are in Petaluma for the Instructor Development Course. We've had a great time and have learned a great deal. We had a little fun along the way, too.



Don't miss out; this five-day course is well worth your time, even if you are a seasoned presenter or trainer.

Leadership according to Colin Powell

Colin Powell
Originally uploaded by dfarber.

Colin Powell spoke this week at the Salesforce.com's user and developer conference in San Francisco. Here's some of what he said.

• Good leaders inspire, not motivate. The best leaders can inspire people, so they can do things through self-motivation.


• Leadership involves developing a vision and conveying that purpose throughout the organization.


• You need to make sure the followers have the skills and tools needed to get the job done. Leadership is about creating bonds of trust.

Good stuff, eh? So, how can we help our Coast Guard leaders -- at all levels of the organization -- abide by these Powellisms?

A graphical UPF...

Several years ago, I sat through a UPF workshop conducted by one of our superb colleagues. I thought the workshop went well, but I also thought the participants -- all senior Captains and a disctrict commander -- didn't get it. What they didn't get, I thought, was why this document is important, what the relationships of the stuff on the UPF are, and how the information can help in strategic planning.

The workshop was fine. The form sucks.

So, I came back and built the GUPF. Here it is:



As you click through it, you'll see that one slide builds upon the next. Yes, it's pretty convoluted by the end, but...

Anyone who wants to try and create a different mental model, please have at it. We need to nail this so that we have a working mental model that appeals to various people and makes things easier to understand.

Is that OMG or OGMI?

Leaders are always looking for good tools... A couple of years ago, I developed the OGMI model... while I'd posted the workshop process, I hadn't posted an example... well, you can now find it here.

Job opening

Here's a job opening at the Milton Hershey School for an organizational development specialist!

Requisition Number 06-0016

Description

This position serves in the role of internal consultant and facilitator for the MHS by applying the following areas of expertise: Diagnosing and translating high-level development needs in conjunction with implementing processes and systems to support leadership development skills and talent management throughout the School. This position works collaboratively with leaders and teams throughout the organization to design and implement initiatives which move the MHS strategic student success plan forward.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
• Master’s Degree in Organization Development, Adult Learning, or related area.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in organization development, talent management or organization effectiveness.
• Minimum 3 years curriculum & instructional design, large-scale change implementation, and leadership development systems.
• Knowledge of web-based applications, on-line learning and performance management applications.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
• Prior experience in implementing succession planning and performance management strategies within a corporate or academic environment.

Minimum Salary $49,730.00
Maximum Salary $62,160.00

Sounds like an interesting job that any of us could take on with ease... ;-)

Delusions of Effectiveness

Enough said...

For the larger size, click here.

Deja Vu all over again

Ziggurats
Originally uploaded by JayMG.

I'd mentioned to a couple of folks that I thought I was back in college here at the National Conference Center. And, here's the reason. For six months I lived in a room in this dorm at the University of East Anglia; I find the similarities striking.

Become a "Guiding Documents Guru"

After Steve's great presentation today, I thought it might be good to gather links to all the various higher authority plans and strategies with which we need to be familiar and put them all in one place. So I have.

You can go here and find the list.

If you can think of other documents which ought to be on the list, let me know, and I will add them. And, whoever can find official Evergreen stuff online, pass the URLs to me, please. For as much as we preach transparency, we seem to be hiding the meat of the Evergreen stuff.

Job opportunity here in Hampton Roads

hampton - fort monroe
Originally uploaded by mpmb.

Folks, here's a great looking job that any of us are qualified for.

One note, it is at Fort Monroe which is slated for BRAC closure; the job will shift to Fort Eustis just a bit up the road.

Incumbent plans and conducts both short-term and long-range strategic studies and reviews other broad scale actions/projects associated with Futures Center goals, efficiencies, increased productivity and reduced manning which directly affect the resource posture and the accomplishment of the Futures Center mission. Assesses the impact of resource and programmatic constraints upon the Futures Center organizational structure, management systems, and/or utilization of personnel. Provides guidance and direction for areas of studies/projects. Establishes overall milestones, conducts meetings, and consolidates staff notes/comments for response to installations and activities. Directs Futures Center efforts in responding to taskings/inquiries from other MACOMS and HQDA and activities. Conducts or participates in conferences relative to resource and programmatic implications of proposed actions and or organizations.

Job closes in 10 days; get to work on that application!

P.S. And, no, I'm not applying. I have current apps in at independent boarding schools here in Virginia and in Minnesota; the positions are English faculty, dean of students, and counselor/director of student support services.

Tradition dies a cold & lonely death

Hot Donuts NOW
Originally uploaded by stepchile.

2100. Time for the conference's "performance improvement workshop." You know, the usual thing, a trip to Krispy Kreme Donuts to see the baking process & taste a dozen samples.

Hotel lobby; I'm the only person. Everyone has stood me up; not another soul.

I'm a alone.

Perhaps it is time for me to move along...

Here we are!

DSC00367
Originally uploaded by J. Puig.

Welcome to Orlando! Here we are at the Residence Inn: eleven of us huddled around a conference table, laptops powered up.

Sometimes, it feels as if we're talking about the same things we talked about four or eight or ten years ago. The wheels spin, sometimes...

There, Chris, I've posted.

Unit Leadership: A variation on the program

Hi, folks. We're doing something a bit different here at the MLCA staff with the ULDP. I thought you might be somewhat interested. Then, again, you might care less. In short, rather than administer the ULDP-36 to all hands, we used a focus group process. For full & detailed coverage on what we did and what the analysis showed, surf to A Place for My Papers.

From Middle America!

Something is amiss; perhaps it is all part of some gigantic conspiracy; we're going to have to look into this. Here's the scoop: this year's Baldrige recipients have been named. Check out this list:

• Sunny Fresh Foods, Inc., Monticello, Minn. (manufacturing)
• DynMcDermott Petroleum Operations, New Orleans, La. (service)
• Park Place Lexus, Plano, Texas (small business)
• Richland College, Dallas, Texas (education)
• Jenks Public Schools, Jenks, Okla. (education)
• Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, Mich. (health care)

My question is this: How is it all of the recipiants came from the middle of the country?

To view the complete press release detailing these role model organizations, visit the National Institute of Standards and Technology website.

An excellent overview of the "Q"

I know. I know. We dropped the "Q" in favor of PEC. Even so, I found this great site I wanted to recommend to everyone. I was stumbling (surfing) around the ASQ site and found this overview page that leads to pages on tools and organizational-wide approaches and four other helpful pages.

The "Q" stuff is still relevant and still helpful. Check it out.

Looking for new travel computers

another one bites the dust
Originally uploaded by Crunchy Pickle.

We're looking for new travel computers. I put out an RFP to replace the three computers for we three Tidewater-based consultants. Here's what we're looking for.

Minimum requirements for recapped travel computers for LANT/D5/MLCA Organizational Performance Consultants:

• Processor running at 1.3GHz or higher


• Memory of 512 MB RAM (or more) at 533MHz (or higher)


• 60 GB hard drive (or larger)


• Graphics card



• 13-inch screen (or larger)
  
• Built-in speakers



• CD-RW/DVD combo drive (or better)



• Minimum of 3 USB 2.0 ports (more preferred)


• Wireless 802.11 b/g capable


• Bluetooth capable


• Internal 56K modem


• Ethernet/network capable


• PC card slot



• Operating system of Windows XP
• Professional with Service Pack 2 with media Software to include Microsoft ® Office Professional Edition 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 6.0



• Carrying case and AC adapter, power cord, battery pack, automobile charge adapter



• No more than 6 pounds, complete

I know a couple of you suggested various other requirements, but we decided these were what our office needed.

I'll post results of the RFP here.

The noise of the babel

Detail van de Toren van Babel
Originally uploaded by Gryts.

Finding a way to quell the noise of the babel is probably one of the most important things a consultant can do.

Colored cards for facilitation

Some of us have been using colored 3x5 cards to help facilitate teams/groups/meetings, particularly with reaching a group decision. Here's another use.

Phone Conference this past Friday with G-CPD

Not many of us on the hook this past Friday with G-CPD. Between client work and leave, I think only half a dozen of us were available.

A couple of items of note.

First, the restructuring of the Chief of Staff's Office. G-CQM is now G-CPD, Office of Performance Management & Decision Support. The new emphasis appears to be on everything (including performance management) leaning toward supporting decision making. Decision Support is to span the various programmatic stovepipes and create systems which allow for fact-based decision making across the enterprise. From the G-CPD intranet site, it looks like there are five teams in the office:

• Executive Support Team
• Innovation Team
• Performance Excellence Team
• Business Architecture Team
• Decision Support Team

The biz architecture team is the remments of G-833, or whatever it was; they're the RMS people, Todd Watanabe & Lori Maselli. Yes, Lori's back in the fold with us.

Captain Ray noted there are 16 FTE at G-CPD with another 23 FTE as OPCs in the field. Not a lot of FTE, particularly if our work is not coordinated, to get a lot of work done.

Second, Captain Ray talked about beefing up the Organizational Performance Consultants' tool kits; bringing all of us up to speed on four additional elements beyond the former QPC toolkit:

• Readiness Management System
• Unit Leadership Development Program
• Organizational assessments
• Category 4 issues

There was some talk about what this beefing up means; I took it to mean knowing enough about each of these to help our organizational clients with their work; bringing these tools to them so that they can manage their performance and make decisions.

Captain Ray plans on making a spin around the CG to talk to all the OPCs, their supervisors, and the chiefs-of-staff; another dog and pony tour.

OPC Roles and Responsibilities

I'd been asked by Dan to write a little roles and responsibilities for organizational performance consultants to go into a new COMDTINST that is being drafted. You can find my first run at this here. Please take a look at it and, if you have any changes or suggestions, shoot them my way.

Thanks.

Blaming people vs. systems or processes

living like it's golden
Originally uploaded by Quereco.

I'm trying to wheedle my way in to work with a client who has what is, I believe, a huge process problem. Question: how can I identify this problem and highlight the benefits of solid management & leadership without coming across as if I'm attacking the people involved?

What we are missing

Sunset Over Back Bay
Originally uploaded by Hankins.

One AM, and I'm on watch. What I'm missing is a week at the Beach with my colleagues.

Some summer left here in Virginia Beach

There's still some summer left. Let's have fun!
Originally uploaded by cbonney.

Too bad we're not going to get to enjoy it together.

Conference canx'd

Cape Henry Lighthouse I
Originally uploaded by solanic.

I heard from Danny that our end-of-the-month conference has been cancelled. Hard to have a conference when everyone is deployed for Hurricane relief.

Well, it was a good idea.

Not my child

virginia 2005 014
Originally uploaded by Ethereal Elle.

Let me start by saying, "This is not my child."

And let me follow on by asking, "Does it seem to you this youngster is a performance consultant in training?"

Okay, all, let's head to the beach!

Our accomodations

Beach Training
Originally uploaded by IFGA.

Thankfully, our accomodations will be better than what these Navy sailors are going to get. And we'll be close to, but not on top of, the sand.

Sunrise Over Fort Story

Sunrise Over Fort Story
Originally uploaded by Hankins.

Not far from our hotel... Who's gonna get up early enough to see the sun rise?

Perhaps we could meet outside

_DSC2330
Originally uploaded by mikef99.

Now that I know Joy and Scott are okay, I feel we can press on in anticipation of our annual gathering. I suspect it might have some special significance.

I was thinking that perhaps instead of meeting in the room at the hotel, we could meet outside like these young business people. Oh, wait, they're not young business people; they're the executive committee of the Jay & Peter Fan Club.

Too bad Jay will not be in attendance to meet the members of the club.

Devastating news on the tube

Well, this post isn't going to be tongue-in-cheek or an attempt to engage you for our September get-together.

I've been surfing the net and so struck by Katrina's wrath. My thoughts and prayers are with our shipmates in the Eighth, particular our colleagues Scott and Joy. I'm guessing that Scott's condo is under water; while I never had a chance to see the inside, from the outside, it looked like quite a place. In the warehouse district. First floor. And likely under water now.

I pray for our friends and their families.

Peace.

My one real worry

Katrina in Fort Lauderdale
Originally uploaded by bfraz.

It seems -- and I am not certain the evidence actually supports this -- that the week we hold our conference is always a hurricane week. Perhaps pushing back a week will make this not so in 2005.

Anyway, my one real worry is that we get pounded by a hurricane and have to bug out. Perhaps our alternate site could be Sewanee, Tennessee?

Check out this list of storms to hit the Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Portsmouth area.

What we're missing

Here's one we're not going to be able to do... MLCLANT is hosting Chief Red Hawk on the 21st of September. He will be conducting a 90-minute session to kick off the MLC staff's leadership development program.

Red Hawk is a professional consultant and keynote speaker with 18 years of experience in the public and private sectors. He has lectured to government officials on diversity, leadership, and team building. He has written and developed motivational group programs, and facilitated organizational problem solving sessions. He has also contributed to developing training videos and training materials.

Red Hawk has extensive experience in the areas of managing diversity and cultural understanding. He has assisted in the design and implementation of system-wide programs in each of these areas. Hawk is a nationally known motivational keynote speaker on the topics of cultural diversity, issues of social change, and structural inequality. He has experience conducting complex workplace investigations, organizational problem solving, mediating employment disputes, and designing and presenting labor and employee relations training for managers and supervisors.

So, if you want to fly in a couple days early, I can get you a seat at his presentation (0900 on 21 September at the Marriott in downtown Norfolk)... and perhaps we can arrange something special, too.

Keep the sharks in the tank, please

Aquarium20
Originally uploaded by Elfinmoon.

About three miles south of our hotel is one of the nation's finest aquarium's, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center. The name recently changed (from the Virginia Marine Science Museum) indicating its continued emphasis on the aquarium aspects of the facility. This is no hands off, staid, look-at-stuffed-and-dead-things museum.

One of the top ten most visited aquariums in the nation, the mission of the Aquarium is "To increase the public's knowledge and appreciation of Virginia's marine environment and inspire commitment to preserve its existence." How do they do it? They have:

• 800,000 gallons of aquariums


• Live animal habitats


• More than 300 hands-on exhibits


• 1/3-mile nature trail


• ½-acre aviary


• "Larger that life" movies on an IMAX movie screen

The Aquarium is open 0900 to 1900 daily; the cost to enter is $12 or $17 for the aquarium and the IMAX theatre.

As long as the sharks stay in the tank... perhaps we'd like to visit?

I live in the matrix

Matrix_B00T
Originally uploaded by matthewvelie.

Yes, I continue to post here rather than using CG Central...

If CG Central were accessible from the internet (outside the firewall)... and if it were user friendly in it's ability to post pictures and links within a text using images already on the internet... and if it didn't take so damn long to load... and if it were easy to navigate... If it was as simple to use as Yahoo or Google (which, by-the-by, it was originally billed as)... Then I'd be the first person to advocate it's use...

In the mean time... ;-)

Bring your metal detector

vab003
Originally uploaded by Emiko Hime.

Still wondering what you can do in our off-hours? Here's a great activity: we'll search for treasure along the beach.

Anyone have a metal detector they can bring?

Home to enlightenment

Wondering what you might be able to do in your off-time (that is, assuming that Chris and Danny let us have any down time at all)?

Did you know that Virginia Beach is home to the Association for Research and Enlightenment, the non-profit center dedicated to the life and work of Edgar Cayce, one of the most documented psychics of all time, a renowned mystic, and the "father of holistic medicine."

For forty-three years of his adult life, Edgar Cayce demonstrated the uncanny ability to put himself into some kind of self-induced sleep state by lying down on a couch, closing his eyes, and folding his hands over his stomach. This state of relaxation and meditation enabled him to place his mind in contact with all time and space. From this state he could respond to questions as diverse as, "What are the secrets of the universe?" to "How can I remove a wart?" His responses to these questions came to be called "readings" and contain insights so valuable that even to this day individuals have found practical help for everything from maintaining a well-balanced diet and improving human relationships to overcoming life-threatening illnesses and experiencing a closer walk with God.

What's this have to do with Virginia Beach? Virginia Beach held special relevance to Edgar Cayce; his visions showed Virginia Beach would survive a cataclysmic event, and the city is now the home to the Association for Research and Enlightenment.

The Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A.R.E.), is the international headquarters for the work of Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), who is considered the best documented psychic of the twentieth century. Founded in 1931, the A.R.E. consists of a community of people from all walks of life and spiritual traditions who have found meaningful and life-transformative insights from the readings of Edgar Cayce. The mission of A.R.E. is to help individuals change their lives for the better by exploring concepts and ideas found in the Cayce work.

The international headquarters of A.R.E. is in Virginia Beach, just a few (okay, about 30) blocks north of our hotel. The visitors' center hosts daily free lectures and activities. They also have a meditation garden which is open to the public.

Perhaps this warrants a field trip; we can spend time in garden, getting in touch with our inner selves.

Our conference provides a time for reflection

finding her shadow
Originally uploaded by -Angela.

Like this 18-month old examining the beach, our conference is an opportunity for us to examine our work, our relationships, our future. I'm so looking forward to it.

Of note, I'm also looking forward to spending some time with Elliot (who'll be 18-monts old also) on the beach so he can find his shadow.

The days are counting down. Please make your hotel reservations this week, if you haven't already made them.

The fallback pool if the outside one is closed

The indoor pool
Originally uploaded by Tidewater Muse.

To those that might be worried: what if it happens to be chilly in late September or the beautiful outdoor pool is closed. Never fear. There's an indoor pool overlooking the beach. You'll have plenty of opportunity to get wet.

No guarantees about the weather

The outdoor pool
Originally uploaded by Tidewater Muse.

Okay, I can't guarantee anything about the weather for our conference. Perhaps it will be warm and the outdoor pool will still be open. Perhaps summer will linger here in Hampton Roads, and it'll be glorious, hanging out at the pool under the palm trees.

Of course, we could always get a hurricane that week, but I'll keep my negative comments to myself.

Don't stare out the windows!

Our meeting room
Originally uploaded by Tidewater Muse.

This is our meeting room. Imagine we are gathered around the table. Imagine Danny is talking, "Blah, blah, blah, blah." Imagine the view out the window. Imagine how you're seeing Danny's mouth move, but the words aren't registering. Imagine ducking out the door on the break. Imagine dashing across the boardwalk & racing through the sand to the water.

Ah, I can hardly wait.

From this past weekend's NY Times

And you thought we're just heading to po-dunk USA? Well, this past Sunday's New York Times' travel section had a write-up on good eats in Virginia Beach! Wrote Mimi Sheraton,

Beautiful eating, however, is the lure for me whenever I am beside the Chesapeake shores, in my experience the source of the world 's pearliest and most toothsome crab meat. That, after having sampled such highly touted specimens as Maine's peekytoe, the West Coast's Dungeness, Alaska's kings and snows, Florida's stone crabs (which I knew as Morro crabs in pre-Castro Cuba) and the crustacean delights of Venice, Louisiana, Kamchatka and Shanghai. As with lobsters when I am in Maine and oysters in Brittany, it was crabs that I built my daily meals on a recent five-day quest in Virginia Beach.

Crustaceans aside, this entertaining seaside city is a repository of some of our country's earliest history as well as a relaxed beach-and-boardwalk resort, stylistically and economically hospitable to families. My goal, however, was to have as much of that silky, sweetly briny meat as possible, in the simplest and most classic preparations - steamed whole and spicy or mounded into puffy, meaty crab cakes, or as the tiny, supple soft-shells, preferably sautéed or lightly fried. The only noncrab tradition that fits such feasting is Hatteras clam chowder, the clear, clam-broth-based soup of the Outer Banks, modified neither with milk nor tomato and laden with clams, celery, onion and, usually, carrots, all cut in varying sizes from the chunkiest to the finely minced.

We'll have to see what we can do.

I'd been thinking maybe Captain George's, a seafood buffet place. Less expensive, perhaps, than Mimi's tastes. Here's what the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau has to say about George:

Only one place has truly captured the essence of the oceans. Captain George’s legendary buffet has been heralded up and down the East Coast as one of the best collections of fresh seafood and regional cuisine available. With over 70 items, fresh seafood cooked every way imaginable, traditional Greek dishes and desserts, beef and pasta dishes, and fresh vegetables are just a walk past the array of incredible buffet items will ensure a return visit.

Located in rural Pungo, south of the resort area, Captain George’s has long been a place to bring friends all of your friends and kick back in a casually elegant dining room. You can enjoy the fare from the buffet, order smooth and icy fruit beverages from the bar, or select a vintage from our extensive wine list.

Get ready to eat, eh?

Check this hotel out, folks

Here's our home for the last week of September!

Please make certain you make your reservations at the correct Marriott Courtyard (there are two in Virginia Beach). We're at Courtyard Virginia Beach Oceanfront/North 37th Street. The address is 3737 Atlantic Ave, right on the Oceanfront. Make your reservations by calling 757-437-0098, and be certain to tell them you're with the Coast Guard Performance Excellence Conference.

Get psyched; we're going to have an excellent conference.

Our annual conference is less than two months away!

DSC_0077
Originally uploaded by CokeintheCan.

And even in late September, the water will be warm enough to swim. Ought to be beautiful; and the surf will be right out the door of the conference room!

I seem to have missed something

Ok, so in Santa Clara, we all agreed to take on this project of creating a guide for the Performance Excellence Criteria. Being all about excellence, I, of course, have forgotten what I'm due to complete.

Ain't that just about par for the course?

News from the home office: FY06 Performance Excellence classes by the Leadership Development Center

The home office has tentatively set the following training dates for FY06:

CPEC (proposed)
03-04 Oct 2005, New London, CT
06-07 Oct 2005, D9 Cleveland, OH
13-14 Oct 2005, D14 Honolulu, HI
24-25 Oct 2005, D11/PAC Oakland, CA
26-28 Oct 2005, D5/LANT Portsmouth, VA
14-15 Nov 2005, D1 Boston
14-15 Nov 2005, D13 Seattle, WA
17-18 Nov 2005, HQ Ballston, VA
17-18 Nov 2005, D17 Kodiak, AK
28-29 Nov 2005, D7 Miami, FL
01-02 Dec 2005, D8 New Orleans. LA

CQA Examiners (proposed)
23-27 Jan 2006, New London, CT
30 Jan - 03 Feb, 2006, Oakland, CA
06-10 Feb 2006, New London, CT
13-17 Feb 2006, Ballston, VA

QPC basic (proposed)
14-25 August 2006, New London, CT


Team Leader & Facilitator (scheduled so far)
17-21 October 2005, ISC San Pedro, CA
31 Oct - 04 Nov 2005, Norfolk, VA

Upcoming dates...

Stole these from George's newsletter...


CPEC Dates    Location
----------    --------
07-08 Oct      D8
18-19 Oct      D13
21-22 Oct      D11 / PAC
09-10 Nov      D1
15-16 Nov      D7
18-19 Nov      HQ
01-02 Dec      D17
01-02 Dec      CGA
07-08 Dec      D9
09-10 Dec      D5 / LANT / MLCA
13-14 Dec      D14

CQA Training    Location
------------    --------
03-07 Jan      New London
10-14 Jan      Washington, DC
24-28 Jan      New London
31Jan-04 Feb      Alameda


18-21 Jan LANT Mini-Conference @ Atlanta

Hot Job Opportunity in Norfolk... one of us ought to nail this one!

Hey, guys, this one is too good to pass up:


MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST
GG-0343 -13
$69,762 - $90,692 per Annum
Announcement Number: NE4-0343-13-CIPO-0211

Open Date: 09/15/2004
Closing Date: 09/29/2004

Salary Range
$69,762 - $90,692 per Annum

Job Location(s)
Norfolk, VA

About the Job

This position is located at Joint Forces Intelligence Command, Plans and Programs Directorate (DP), Requirements and Program Management (DP1), Norfolk, VA.

Serves as a Team Leader.

With minimal to no supervision, develops and maintains a Performance Management and the Balanced Scorecard program throughout the Plans and Programs Directorate and the Command.

Develops and implements a program to provide ongoing monitoring and reporting of, but not limited to, operational performance, cost and utilization, labor productivity, major initiatives in alignment with strategic direction, outcomes, quality and other key metrics associated with alignment and accomplishment of directorate, division, branch, individual and command-wide missions, functions, processes, products, and services.

Responsible for overall implementation of the balanced scorecard at the command-wide level and then cascading the scorecard down from the command level, through the directorate and division levels, down to the individual level, working with all personnel in the command to understand and fully implement the program.

This effort includes training command personnel in the use, effectiveness, and application of the Balanced Scorecard or other performance management techniques.

This position will be instrumental in working with individuals, groups, and cross-matrixed teams to improve overall performance and mission accomplishment.

This position will work specifically with other DP1 requirements managers/analysts to develop specific performance metrics associated with transformation and future intelligence requirements accomplishment.

Assist the strategic planners with strategy mapping and strategic objectives development and implementation.
This position must have a total understanding of the intelligence cycle and be fully conversant and experienced in the full spectrum of Intelligence functional areas and methodologies so the performance management and improvements will have a positive effect on intelligence transformation.

Proficient and experienced oral and verbal presentation skill are a must.

The Team Leader will ensure the other performance management analysts exhibit a proactive approach to the development, implementation and training of command personnel in all aspects of metrics, accountability, performance improvement, Balanced Scorecard, and performance management. Other methodologies, such as Six Sigma, and CMMI should be incorporated as required. Other duties as assigned.

Who May Apply
All Qualified Candidates Nationwide

See Navy Jobs to apply; search by Announcement Number.

Book recommendation: The power of the matrix

Recommended reading: The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix : Using 2x2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems and Make Better Decisions. Hopefully we'll all get copies in September at the conference. If not, worth spending your own funds to get a copy.

Richter and I have never met a model we didn't like... ;-)

Make meetings great!

Well, folks, here I am attending QPC Basic. Danny and Chris decided I needed a little re-training, so they sent me back here to the LDC. I'm not sure how they figured that would help as it's pretty darn difficult to teach an old dog new tricks. But, nonetheless, here I am.

In truth, this has been a good two weeks, allowing me to refocus on what I and we are doing; it's also given me an opportunity to meet some new QPCs and some "quality professionals." Last week Charlie had me on the podium covering some consulting basics such as aligning and consulting, so I got a chance to poison the class. ;-)

I have picked up a slew of stuff, including this little gem: Let's make meetings GREAT!

• Goals should be smart
• Roles & rules
• Expectations
• Agenda
• Time

Nifty, eh? I certainly thought so.

That's about it for now. See y'all in Portsmouth next month! If you haven't made your reservations... well, you might be out of luck!

Check this out...

Well, fellow performance consultants... wondering what life might bring after a tour or two as a performance consultant... check this out!