Less WIP for better flying

I spent the end of the this week at ProjectFlow2011, a conference put on by Realization. Realization focuses on software and professional services using a Critical Chain approach.

The conference speakers were primarily Realization customers sharing success stories. One story that I found interesting was from Delta Airlines, primarily because I fly on Delta so much. The challenge Delta had after the merger with Northwest was how many different types of airplanes they had to support. There was almost no overlap between the planes Delta flew and the ones Northwest flew. Over the course of a year, Delta was able to reduce their cancellations by 62%.

One primary change had to do with reducing multi-tasking. Before the change, they would look at all upcoming scheduled maintenance on all airplanes every night and would perform any work that was on the schedule for the next 2 1/2 days. This meant each plane had some other maintenance due 2 1/2 days later. The change they made was working on fewer aircraft each night, but looking forward 15 days on each plane they worked on. By focusing on fewer planes at a time (less work in progress), they were able to keep all the planes running better.

There were a number of other companies that shared the similar stories and reduction of work in progress was one of the key tools used to improve project execution. I'll save some of the other techniques, such as buffers, for future blog posts.

Multi-tasking and Creativity

I've written before about multi-tasking (here, here, and here). In general, I think multi-tasking doesn't work and should be avoided. But does it hamper creativity?

In a study done by Teresa Amabile and others (see footnote), they found that having a fragmented day (ie, multi-tasking) didn't help bring out more ideas. Focusing on a single topic and collaborating with a single individual increased creativity.

I think about my typical day on site with a client. I have multiple meetings on different topics and don't seem to get a lot deep thinking work done. On Fridays, when I work from home and have more control over my day (and less meetings), I can carve out a large chunk of time to focus on a single topic and that's when I come up with some good solutions.

I've heard of organizations that are going to no email Fridays. I think the benefits will be the same. Without the distraction of email, they can focus on a single problem and let the creativity flow.

So pick a problem you've been trying to solve, block your calendar for half the day Friday, turn off the email, and get creative.

Teresa M. Amabile et al., “Time pressure and creativity in organizations: A longitudinal field study,” Harvard Business School working paper, Number 02-073, 2002

Organizational Multi-tasking

I had the opportunity to talk to Sanjeev Gupta, the CEO of Realization last week. His company is applying the principles of Critical Chain to help companies out.

We talked about multi-tasking; one of my favorite topics. I often think of multi-tasking at the personal level. If I have one of my developers working on 2 different tasks at once, they are less efficient at both and loss time to context switching. Sanjeev pointed out the organizations multi-task as well, something I don't think about as often, but in hindsight, have observed frequently.

This situation occurs when organizations are trying to run to many projects at once. Teams are getting pulled back and forth; again resulting in all the projects coming in later than they could if a more focused approach was taken. Sanjeev often recommends to clients that they cut back on the number of active projects going at one time. It made me think of Kanban, but at an organizational level; you pick the most important project and get it completely done before starting the next.

The other part of effective delivery from Sanjeev's perspective is ensuring everyone knows the priority of the work at a task level. This is the project manager's job to drive this message. So instead of having a complex project plan with resources assigned to multiple tasks (with no priority), you provide each resource a prioritized task list and have them focus on the highest priority first. Just like having a prioritized product backlog.

So does everyone on your team understand the priorities? Do you find them working on tasks that may not be so important? At an organizational level, does everyone understand the priority of the projects?

Multi-tasking and Kanban

I was at a presentation on Kanban put on by the local agile group tonight. I'm familiar with Kanban, but still picked up some good information.

One thing that struck a chord with me had to do with multi-tasking. In a previous blog post, I've discussed how multi-tasking doesn't work. In tonight's presentation, a statistic was shared that software developers waste 20% of their time when they are multi-tasking.

Kanban is the solution. The idea is you only take 1 task at a time and work until that task is done before you grab another one. You don't have a long backlog of work and you're not trying to manage a full plate of work with all the task switching that goes with it.

I find I'm more successful when I take this approach to work. At the beginning of the day, I figure out the tasks I need to accomplish. While I'm working on a task, I do my best to avoid interruptions. I ignore my email and avoid other distractions (or at least I try). I'll catch back up on email and other stuff when the task is done. It helps when I can keep tasks to an hour or less. If it's a big project, I break it into smaller chunks.

So if you find you are often interrupted, look at how you can break your work into small chunks and turn off the distractions while you complete your task.

Research on Multi-tasking

I came across an interesting article in Time magazine about multi-tasking. The bottom line is that we truly cannot multi-task, we can just switch from task to task, but at what price? According to the article

When people try to perform two or more related tasks either at the same time or alternating rapidly between them, errors go way up, and it takes far longer--often double the time or more--to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially.

I know I've been making more effort to stop multi-tasking. One key for me to get something done is to shut off distractions; don't look at email, close out of IM, close the browser, so I can focus on the task at hand.

The article goes on to say a little stimulation can help but to much gets distracting. I like listening to traditional Jazz (no lyrics) when I'm trying to focus. Nothing like some good Coltrane to help get that spreadsheet done.

Another interesting fact, the mind needs quiet time in order to help memories form. Another reason for meditating. On the same line, it's important to get away from all the technology and have some interactions with people.