Manchester Honda excels again

Manchester Honda in Manchester, CT, continues to deliver better than best customer experiences.

Last night at my Rotary club, Manchester Honda made a generous donation to the South Windsor Rotary club auction.

Guess where I am purchasing my next Honda - and telling all my friends about the incredible experiences.

Manchester Honda - Sets the example in customer service

Preparing for a weekend trip with the Boy Scouts, to go ice fishing in New Hampshire, I decided to replace wiper blades on my Honda Odyssey. I figured it would take about 15 minutes and cost about $50. I stopped at an auto parts store and was about to purchase replacement blades, when I remembered that Manchester Honda offer a blade replacement service. (Customer service people have reminded me of this on prior visits to service my Hondas)

I turned around and drove in to Manchester Honda, to confirm their offering for wiper blades. The pleasant surprises started at the door, and only got better. Firstly, I was quoted about $20 to replace the blades, and told it would take about 20 minutes. I suggested an oil change before the long trip this weekend, and was told that the oil life time of 60% doesn't require an oil change now. I can live with this arrangement, and gladly handed over the keys.

Within no time at all the van was returned, with new wiper blades and a complimentary car wash. All of this at no cost, because I am a regular customer. Now, I am a regular and delighted customer.

The reason I am a repeat customer is because Manchester Honda sets the example in customer service. Is there any mystery in this situation? I will keep on taking the time to drive to Manchester Honda as long as they keep on taking care of me. What are you doing to delight your customers today?

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On a side note. Honda have still not issued a conclusive recall on the fading brake pedal issue on the 2007 Odyssey. It seems that it will take a Toyota scale scandal for Honda to pick up the ball and fix this issue where the brake pedal fades away due to air in the breaking system. I have had my van repaired twice under warranty and still experience this disturbing behavior. Let's hope Honda picks up the pace on this before it causes more accidents. Do a google search to see how many Odyssey drivers have complained about soft and fading brake pedal issue)

Stop thinking outside the box

Reviewed a presentation today, with multiple presenters. What a surprise - PowerPoint was abused (again). I wrote "Dodging the Bullet Points" which has helped many presenters raise their presentation standards, to avoid exactly these sort of painful experiences.

Anyway, rather than bore you by discussing the usual amateurish visuals, the real lesson is from the accompanying speeches.

Presenters used well-worn (worn-out?) buzzwords and phrases as if they were on the leading edge of management theory. "Thinking outside the box", and quoting Steven Covey isn't cutting it for me any more. It doesn't matter how convincingly you say it.

Where on earth have you been for the past ten, fifteen or more years, if you still think that "Thinking outside the box" is going to impress your audience?

Therefore, in your next speech:
1. Take some time to select contemporary quotes from the media or Internet.
2. Read a book published in this century.
3. Ask a trusted advisor to review your slides, to make sure that you are not still "Thinking outside the box"

Needless to say, most of the presenters were oblivious to the time restrictions on the presentation, and kept on quoting Old Dead White Guys (like Churchill) to a young, multi-cultural audience long after their allotted time had come and gone.

The only saving grace was the final presenter who acknowledged the time and cut short her segment of the presentation in an attempt to get the show back on the road. This is what speakers should do - paraphrase your segment of the presentation without making a big deal of it.

SNEC-PMI Job Fair = Huge Success

Linda Benedict organized a hugely successful event yesterday for job seekers in Cromwell yesterday. I contributed my time to support this event. Linda sets the example for planning, leading and coordinating an outstanding event.

Take a look at this clip from Fox news.

Snow again

After all these years in New England, we still marvel at the beauty and serenity of a snowfall.

Slaughter the sacred cows that drag down your project

Do you have reports, procedures or norms in your projects that are never questioned? Is the format of your status report obscuring it's very purpose of providing status to enable good decision making? How open are you to suggestions for improvement by looking your project's "sacred cows" in the eye, and taking the bull by the horns when needed?

I am currently working on a project where the department heads insist on using a weekly status report format that takes 20% of the project administrative resources each week to produce. This is in addition to the plethora of dashboards and status meetings which have mushroomed on the overstaffed project team. I will call the status report in question a "milestone plan" for easy reference.

This milestone plan has an unknown ROI. No one on the team can explain who uses the milestone plan or quantify the value of this milestone plan. The department head insists that the milestone plan be up to date at all times, and any team member who dares to pose a reasonable question regarding this milestone plan earn demerits on their annual review. Every team member has been subjected to this punishment in an attempt to raise awareness around this irrational waste of shareholder money. This has lead to an unwritten policy of "don't ask questions - keep doing what you are told to do".

Of course, I can't right all wrongs in the world. Despite my efforts, the milestone plan will continue to exist long after I leave this department.

However, the lesson for readers of this blog are:
1. Be aware of sacred cows on your project. Try to find out the unwritten rules that you and your project team operate in. Don't slaughter the sacred cow in your host village - the chief will run you out of town for not observing his rituals.
2. Ask trusted advisors to speak the truth to you. Find a few intelligent advisors such as your professional coach who speak up to help you avoid pitfalls. Do everything you can to not create your own sacred cows which impede project success.
3. Always question the ROI of status reports on projects. Mindless creation of status reports, without frequent evaluation of the ROI, is arguably the largest waste of project resources known to man.

Now, go ahead and ask your project team "What did this report cost to produce, and who is using it?" Would you invest your mother's retirement fund in this project with this ROI?

Professional Adventures

When last did you try something new? Obviously, I expect that you try new flavors of coffee every now and then, read a book on a new topic by a new author and read articles about project management that you don't normally read.

However, in addition to these adventures, when last did you look at facebook and consider the benefits of facebook to develop relationships with team members and stakeholders? I am posting one topic of project management advice on facebook every day and getting feedback that people enjoy reading my postings. I also find that I know a lot more about project management that I typically have opportunity to disclose in day-to-day interactions. Facebook provides me with the opportunity to teach team members about project management in the informal setting of their own facebook account.

Facebook is the undiscovered tool to build informal relationships and teach project management to the benefit of project success. I find that building relationships with project stakeholders and team members on facebook is improving project communication on my projects due to the fact that team members have a stronger relationship with me as result of communications on facebook.

Therefore, my advice is "Review your facebook account and use it for informal communications to have better project outcomes".

In the same vein - what other professional adventures have you undertaken recently? Please don't tell me that you are doing the "same old, same old" and still filling out the same stupid spreadsheets that you were using five years ago.

Review how much effort you are putting in to manage your projects and think of ways to:
1. Reduce your labor intensity. (How can you get the same results with less effort and time?)
2. Get better results for the same time investment.
3. Identify tasks that don't need to be done. (This is the fastest way to free up time - stop doing what doesn't need to be done).
4. Review the status reports that you are creating manually, and investigate the ROI of implementing a computer system to generate regular status reports.

Variety is the spice of life. Your career needs professional variety. Take new views on your project activities, and add in some spice. Project management is only a bland profession, if you choose to make it so.