Pflogging ... in pursuit of accelerated value creation

A timeline is a a graphical representation of a linear sequence of significant events which has occurred during the accomplishment of some activity. A timetable provides a corresponding, forward-looking series of pre-arranged events, organized as a tabular list, and is used to plan and track such activities for performing and reporting on future work. Each of the events associated with these timelines and timetables may be comprised of either top-level milestones or more detailed inchstones.  read more »

There is no longer much public debate about whether global warming is occurring or not. Articles like 'Mass extinction study casts cloud on future' paint a bleak picture of what lies ahead for the earth's population. But wait, if the future is cloudy, wouldn't things be cooling down?

My flippant remark is intended to reinforce that it is sometimes a bit hard to sort out sensationalism from hard science in policy-making for significant issues in society; too often, there is a 'rush to judgement' regarding major changes, when history indicates that such haste is rarely necessary, and when it is, the related decisions have as much chance to cause more problems as they do to fix the original situation. Often, the situation is simply more complicated than it appears; true science would expect that hypotheses would be developed, predictions made, experiments performed, results widely reviewed, options analyzed, and consensus established over a long period of time. But when a 'crisis' occurs, too often, this wise course is abandoned.  read more »

Spin is the process of selectively interpretting a situation in a biased way, in order to drive a particular agenda. When a particular data measurement value or trend is not well defined, in business or government, this can be particularly dangerous. This is because such spin drives decisions based upon one perception of the world, when in fact another reality may be actually occurring. For a particularly troubling example, consider this alternative view of the current economic situation. For another, consider the many financial institutions that maintained excellent credit ratings, despite large portfolios of Subprime lending.

The underlying elements which enable such spin are:  read more »

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING offers a comprehensive introduction to the field with a strong focus on the social aspects of decision making processes. Winner of the prestigious William James Book Award, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING is an informative and engaging introduction to the field written in a style that is equally accessible to the introductory psychology student, the lay person, or the professional. A unique feature of this volume is the Reader Survey which readers are to complete before beginning the book. The questions in the Reader Survey are drawn from many of the studies discussed throughout the book, allowing readers to compare their answers with the responses given by people in the original studies. This title is part of The McGraw-Hill Series in Social Psychology.

The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making author: Scott Plous asin: 0070504776 binding: Paperback amazon price: $64.57 USD

On average, a physician will interrupt a patient describing her symptoms within eighteen seconds. In that short time, many doctors decide on the likely diagnosis and best treatment. Often decisions made this way are correct, but at crucial moments they can also be wrongwith catastrophic consequences. In this myth-shattering book, Jerome Groopman explores the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He pinpoints why doctors err and shows when and how they canwith our helpavoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can profoundly impact our health. Groopman draws on a wealth of research, extensive interviews with some of the countrys best doctors, and his own experiences as a doctor and as a patient. In a new afterword for the paperback edition, Groopman offers patients and their family members practical suggestions for improved communication with their physicians.
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How Doctors Think author: Jerome Groopman rating: asin: 0547053649 binding: Paperback list price: $15.95 USD amazon price: $10.85 USD

For a few minutes, let's think of the data collection, decision-making, and status reporting involved as a person or work group performs their work, and when they need to switch from performing one set of tasks to another. Let's call this monitoring and control the 'Work Operating System' for their production (as an analog of an operating system for a computer). Like a computer system, when a person or work group switches contexts, there is overhead (in both time and energy) involved.

Psychologists describe these context switches as disrupting an individual's psychological flow, and for this reason, such changes can significantly reduce overall throughput of these work teams, whether small or large. Such context switches need to occur when one set of tasks completes, or when the Work Operating System has to respond to high-priority jobs (emergent work more important than anything else). When this occurs, the system must have sufficient resources and operating performance for accomodating this emergent work, and after it is accomplished, to continue to process both normal priority (time-critical in the short-term) jobs and lower-priority jobs (batch runs that are not immediately time-critical, but are still important over the longer term).

In becoming more effective, either as an individual or a business, should one only focus on the business results that are desired, or are the means to those ends equally important? Is it enough to care passionately about goals and be able to clearly articulate their importance and why they matter to customers, or is it equally important to chart an efficient path which will reach those goals, navigate and anticipate risks along the way, and respond effectively to issues as they arise? Which of these two types of criteria - results vs means - is best for our use in evaluating performance? Which is more important as leverage to enable improvements? I'd like to tackle these questions indirectly, by showing how they relate to an important current problem at the national level.  read more »

Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you. When we see an inspiring wildlife picture of a bear with a salmon in it’s mouth, it’s very easy for some of us to relate to the bear. This is the mental model we have in our heads of our role in our environment. But often, we’re the salmon, not the bear, and when that happens, the swim doesn’t quite seem like it was worth it.

There are several lessons we've all heard countless times, and that most of us intuitively understand. In work settings, I routinely try to practice these lessons. But in my personal life, I sometimes find how easy it is to try to take shortcuts... and when I do, I find I re-learn again why key practices are so important, as I have over the last several months:  read more »