Change management
The objects of our affection
Sat, 10/25/2008 - 10:24 — Bryan PflugConcrete terms can also be specific or general. For example,
General terms and specific terms are not opposites, as abstract and concrete terms are; instead, they are the different ends of a range of terms. General terms refer to groups; specific terms refer to individuals—but there's room in between. Let's look at an example.
Furniture is a general term; it includes within it many different items. If I ask you to form an image of furniture, it won't be easy to do. Do you see a department store display room? a dining room? an office? Even if you can produce a distinct image in your mind, how likely is it that another reader will form a very similar image? Furniture is a concrete term (it refers to something we can see and feel), but its meaning is still hard to pin down, because the group is so large. Do you have positive or negative feelings toward furniture? Again, it's hard to develop much of a response, because the group represented by this general term is just too large.
We can make the group smaller with the less general term, chair. This is still pretty general (that is, it still refers to a group rather than an individual), but it's easier to picture a chair than it is to picture furniture. read more »
Judgements with justice
Sat, 10/25/2008 - 10:22 — Bryan PflugDefining what you love
Sat, 10/25/2008 - 10:08 — Bryan PflugSoon is not a time
Sat, 10/25/2008 - 09:32 — Bryan PflugTranslating abstract needs into concrete actions
People that are on a development project often use language whose meaning is ambiguous. Unravelling this lack of clarity be a tricky thing to do. Development relies upon effective communications, and achieving this foundational capability requires that all parties consistently understand the meaning behind the words that they are using. Such understanding usually requires careful listening, disciplined synthesis of concepts, and clear and written elaboration and allocation of derived details. Each of these steps involves conscientious and persistent attention in order to be successful.
A case study of implementing systematic improvements
The term health care reform has diverse meanings for the many stakeholders involved in the US health care system. The underlying issues associated with implementing such reforms are quite complex, but pressures for reform are high. In 2005 alone, the United States spent more than two trillion dollars on health care, or over $7,100 per person, and are growing at over twice the rate of growth of our overall economy. Government and private insurance fund about 80 percent of those costs, and the rest largely comes directly (rather than indirectly) out of our pockets. About a third of these expenditures occur within hospitals; clinicians get another third, and the rest is spread across nursing homes, prescription drugs, and the costs of administering our insurance system.
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Cultural resistance
Sat, 05/17/2008 - 05:22 — Bryan Pflug
Sandra Kay Daniel is a middle-aged, second-grade teacher at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. She is at the front line of the No Child Left Behind program, an ambitious effort towards educational reform in primary and secondary education.
Nearly all of you have probably seen an excerpt of Sandra in an evening news show, or a popular movie. The book Super Crunchers chronicles one of Sandy's lessons, as she leads her class through a particular book: read more »
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The culture's assimilation of change
Thu, 05/08/2008 - 18:35 — Bryan Pflug
Most physicians spend the overwhelming majority of their professional lives in their own individual practice, operating independently of oversight, delivering care, and following a standard set of flows that have been laid out for them. At the end of the day, each of these physicians is essentially running their own retail business, seeing patients according to a tightly time-boxed regime that defines what they will be reimbursed for. The success or failure of their businesses is thus determined by how effective they are at recovering reimbursements from insurance, and how successful they are at avoiding lawsuits. And a belief in personal responsibility is deeply engrained in their professional culture, and is responsible for their fierce attachment to individual autonomy.
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Catalyzing collaboration
Sat, 10/20/2007 - 14:08 — Bryan PflugAlistair Cockburn has written extensively on the art of facilitating collaboration.
Open source is now being applied to hardware.
Google lets user community change map locations.
Microsoft is threatened by Linux.
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Software Program Manager's Network
The Software Program Manager's Network (SPMN) was established in 1992 by the Navy to identify proven industry and government software best practices and convey these practices to program managers of large-scale DoD system acquisition programs. By sharing and applying such "in the trenches" experience, the SPMN enabled these program managers to achieve improved program success and deliver quality systems on schedule and on budget.
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