I haven’t blogged in 220 days, but I haven’t been idle either.  Far from it.  What has been going on you might ask?  For one, this happened!  (More on that later)

Here are 10 things I have been up to since this Word of Mouth Marketing post on January 8, 2011:

1. My first big project at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center went live.  It was a custom developed Time & Labor implementation and was a big win for BIDMC and SEI.
2. I transitioned from an HR Project Management Consulting role to the role of Test Manager on a large-scale, integrated Lab Information System for the hospital.  The transition from HR to the Clinical side has been as rewarding as it has been challenging.  And it has been very challenging.
3. I took a hiatus from blogging.  220 days.  I started to find myself staring at draft posts in WordPress, seemingly without words.  This lack of words was my mind telling me that I was lacking focus.  I don’t expect blogging to be easy, but I do expect to feel passionate about communicating a message, and if that isn’t there, I’m not going to fake it.
4. During that time, I began dreaming up a new concept for my ‘social landing page’ (Blog, resume, experience, non-profit advocacy work, and everything in between), called davisory.com.  It’s a play on what I do (Business and technology consulting – Advisory services), and my name.  Yeah I know, it’s not ingenious, but it let’s me have more range to talk beyond the boundaries of HR Technology.  I really enjoy HR, and I know I will work on many more HR projects, but I also know it’s not all I can do, nor is it all I will be doing, so www.hrthinktank.net is feeling very restrictive.
5. I fell off my bike.  My first real crash, going 20+ mph.  Spent a little time at the doctors, and a little more time recovering, but I got right back in the saddle.
6. I got married on July 4.  It was the best day of my life and we couldn’t be happier.  I’m excited for everything that life holds for us.  (To see the video, click the link, then look for July04 Andrea and Jason in the right column)
7. I went to Hawaii.  I sailed around the Napali coast in a 65-foot catamaran.  I watched the sun rise above the clouds and then biked down the Haleakala Crater on Maui.  I ate, drank, and laughed, and had an amazing honeymoon with my beautiful new wife.
8. I hit my 4 year anniversary at SEI-Boston, LLC.  SEI was recognized by the Cincinnati Enquirer as the #1 Best Workplace: Small Companies in their 2011 report.  We’re now 30 consultants strong in Boston, up from 5 when I started four years ago.  It’s a great company, and we’re hiring.
9. I rode in my 3′rd Pan-Mass Challenge, only this time I rode from the New York border.  3 days, 300 miles, all in the spirit of fighting cancer and pedaling for a cure.  Like my previous two PMCs, it was an amazing experience, and I couldn’t be prouder to be involved.  Want to help the cause?  I sure could use your help and would love you as part of our community.
10. I sat on my couch, for 3 hours, and thought about all of the big things I did in the past 220 Days.  I reflected on a busy 7 months.  I’m excited about the next 7.

Thanks for reading.  Hope you are all doing well.

-Jason

220 Days. is a post from: HR Think Tank

A few weeks ago, I tried a great new spot in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood – The Citizen Public House and Oyster Bar.  And then I went back…

It’s a great spot for after work – excellent bartending staff, a great selection of beers, a better selection of whiskeys, and wine on tap.  (Yes I said it, wine on tap).  I haven’t tried the food, but that looks delicious too and I am sure I will be back to give the menu a shot.

I’m pretty loyal to my usual spots, and around Fenway that means the Cask N’ Flagon, The Baseball Tavern, and Remy’s.  But someone was raving about the Citizen Public House, so I gave it a shot.

Business is like that too.  Companies have their ‘usual spots’, but they come in the form of vendors and products.  You don’t just get on that list because you open up shop.  You get on their list by delivering in a way that makes people that your clients already trust rave about your company.

The trust component is critical here.  Ads in the Improper Bostonian do very little to close the trust gap enough to get a client to choose you over an incumbent provider.  Your focus should be on creating relationships, not selling, and anything less than an intense focus on exceeding expectations for clients you are working for (or selling your product to) is a huge mistake, because they are your best brand advocates.

Check out the Citizen Public House on Twitter and Facebook.

(Disclaimer that I shoudn’t even write but feel obligated to: The Citizen Public House did not compensate me for this post.  In fact, they have no idea who I am.  If, by chance, they offer me a free beer though, I will take it, and I will not share it with you)

Word of Mouth Marketing is a post from: HR Think Tank

Project Management and Project Portfolio Management is a post from: HR Think Tank

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  I hope you have a great day full of family, friends, football, and food.  It’s been a great year and we have a lot to be thankful for.

That is my Dad and my awesome nephew Cayden.  Dad’s shirt says “This is what a cool dad looks like”.  I would have to agree.  If you have ever met him you would agree too.  Given it’s Thanksgiving, and also that it was my father’s birthday in November I thought, hey, I should do a lessons from Dad post.  Boom. Done.  This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for these awesome lessons from my dad.

1. Sleep when you are dead.

My Dad owns this phrase.  A lot of my friends immediately say this when my Dad comes up in conversation.  He would say it whenever he wanted us to go on some crazy trip last minute.  My favorite was in the Summer of 1999.  I was on my summer break from the US Air Force Academy and hanging out in the backyard with friends.  Dad came out and said “I am leaving for Woodstock in 15 minutes, who is coming with me?”  About ten college kids standing around and only two takers.  We drove to Rome, NY and had a great time at Woodstock 99 – Rusted Root, Jewel, Our Lady Peace, Chili Peppers.  Loads of great bands and good times on less than an hour notice.  Lessons here are endless – Be spontaneous.  Life your life.  Have fun.  Don’t wait until tomorrow to do something you could do today.

2. Show Up; 2a. Do what you said you would do

Half of the battle is showing up.  Commit to attending an event and thinking about blowing it off?  Don’t.  Have a little too much fun and thinking about calling in sick?  Don’t.  My dad taught me that it was important to be reliable.  If you say you are going to do something – Do it.  This is obviously important in both your personal and your professional life.  If you consistently show up and do what you commit to… if you are reliable… you put yourself in the position to be a go-to friend, or the go-to resource in the workplace, and that is gold.  So show up.  And Do what you said you would do.  Every time.

3. Behind every great project manager is at least one exceptional technical resource who they have not pissed off yet.

My Dad is a problem solver.  He’s a technologist at heart that fixes tough technical problems.  I am a project manager slash business development type.  I know enough to know when there is a problem, but I usually have to convince someone else to fix it (hey, that is harder than it sounds!).  Dad ribs me quite a bit on this point -  “I want to DO the work”.  “I fix things.  You just plan things.”  While  knowing your role, learning the art of escalation, and managing scope are all important, I learned perhaps the number one rule of thumb for any successful PM from my father before I was even a PM: Behind every great project manager (or business sponsor for that matter), is at least one exceptional technology resource who they have not pissed off yet.  Take it to the bank.  You lose your tech team, you’re done.

This list could be way longer, like be nice to your mom (and make sure everyone else is too).  I also know by now that he brought me into this world, and that he can take me out of it, and that even though he taught me everything I know, he didn’t teach me everything he knows.  I’m looking forward to learning the rest of it, because I have a Dad that I like to hang out with. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, I’m Thankful For… Lessons From Dad is a post from: HR Think Tank

I recently came across a Project Management article by Anna Possek on Dice.com.  In her article, she describes project management in a unique way.   Here is Anna’s take on what qualities are required to be a project manager:

The project manager must be:

* a diplomat to deal with conflicts between different stakeholders
* a psychologist to keep morale of the team high
* a merchant in negotiations
* an engineer to verify designs and quality
* a passionate leader to keep everybody focused
* a scapegoat if this will calm down unnecessary blaming

The most important quality for a project manager is verbal and written communication skills…

Have you ever heard that before on HR Think Tank?  Of course… Communication Style Bias. Managing Scope: It’s Really About Trust, Communication, and Delivery. No shortage of communications articles here.

What’s missing though?  Here’s something that should be a part of every project management job description – Great project managers should be able to excel and move forward in an orderly and purposeful manner in situations of uncertainty.  You need to be able to chart a course.  Tolerate ambiguity.  Make decisions.

IT Project Manager: A Fraud, Hero or Scapegoat is a post from: HR Think Tank

I think that communication and relationship management is THE NUMBER 1 driver of project success.  Hands down.  Scan the tags in my blog, and come across posts like Four Types of People: Know Your Audience and Managing Scope: It’s Really About Trust, Communication, and Delivery.  I saw a quote and it reminded me just how important it is not to lose sight of barriers to communication in the workplace.

What you say may not be what the other person hears.  What you hear may not be what the other person means.

Communication.  Trust.  Important concepts in business and project management.  But I can’t emphasize how important it is to consider your audience and to tailor your delivery to prevent communication style bias from harpooning your project’s progress.  This approach, dubbed style flexing, is a common practice with successful sales professionals who are skilled at modifying their approach to communicate on their customer’s communication style level.  Improve in this area, and see instant results.  You can bet on it.

Communication Style Bias is a post from: HR Think Tank

Steve Jobs of Apple used this image to explain their approach to product development, saying:

We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both, to make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but also have them be intuitive, easy to use, fun to use, so that they really fit the users – the users don’t have to come to them, they come to the user.

Yesterday I was following the analyst updates from #workdaytech, primarily updates from Naomi Bloom and Jason Averbook, and it became apparent that the market leaders in the enterprise software space will be the ones who have a defined roadmap that allow them to compete, figure out social integration (i.e. conversational transactions, micro-blogging, social ‘tool’ integration, etc), and most importantly are able to articulate the benefits of their product to both IT AND business sponsors.  In Workday’s case, this means selling the advantages of true-SaaS/multi-tenancy, and it’s ability to deliver significant cost-savings due to more efficient delivery of their software, not to mention being able to drastically reduce implementation timelines and simplify future upgrade planning.

That isn’t rocket science right?  To sell enterprise software you must appeal to buyers with different agendas and priorities, in this case IT users whose concerns are around infrastructure costs, data security, authentication, and a slew of other technical areas to the HR user, who cares most about usability, employee experience, and being able to intuitively perform transactions in the system to manage human capital processes for the organization.  But the question remains – are we training and preparing the workforce for today’s word of blended technology and business responsibilities?  Are they prepared to operate in the gray area of defining application security around business processes, configuring applications to meet business priorities, and understanding of often-complex IT and business hand-offs to manage the applications supporting the enterprise?

I would argue that today’s marketplace demands professionals on both sides of the fence that understand their counterparts to a greater degree than ever before.  Authors have preached about the differences between IT and Business professionals in books like The Geek Gap and Leading Geeks.  Today, HR professionals, you are amongst the ‘geek ranks’.  The successful HR professional sits at the intersection of technology and business, and understands how they compliment each other to turn human capital management into a competitive advantage, instead of a cost center.  The successful HR professional doesn’t code or manage environments, but they understand how to leverage data within the HRMS to generate information that ultimately affects compensation programs, retention, talent acquisition, and other critical areas of HR.  Similarly, the IT professional supporting HR needs to understand the business.  They need to talk the language, and understand what drives projects, business requirements, and application configuration decisions.

Today, the intersection of technology and business is a crowded one with blurred center lines.  It’s the dangerous intersection with the flashing yellow lights.  The most prepared to learn and adapt will survive, and excel.  Those who prefer to stick to a narrow view of their job responsibilities might as well pull over and get out of the way.

Thoughts from the Intersection of Technology and Business is a post from: HR Think Tank

The recent recession has been a significant game changer for business in a lot of ways.  There were the obvious changes, specific to the recession, such as a significant power shift to the employers.  We all watched (and some of us, unfortunately, participated) as hordes of qualified candidates piled out of the workforce and into applicant tracking systems where companies could be selective about who they hired, and at what cost.  Then there are the more long term game changers – the things that have the traction to outlast the recession and continue to be a major part of business strategies moving forward.  Amongst those – the significant increase in the use of the virtual workplace.

The virtual workplace isn’t a new concept – for the last decade industry analysts and organizational change management consultants have been hypothesizing about the benefits of virtual teaming and the best ways to manage the virtual global workforce.  Their findings are well documented and at a high-level can be summarized like this: identify if a virtual workplace fits with your corporate culture and organizational objectives; identify jobs and individuals that work in a virtual model; modify processes to manage and engage remote employees; keep a razor sharp focus on evaluating effectiveness and continuous improvement of the program.

In 2007, Gartner reported that by 2011, 46.6 million corporate employees globally will spend at least one day a week teleworking, and 112 million will work from home at least one day a month.  This pace has been accelerated further combination of the recession, the emergence of ever-improving document management and collaboration platforms.

This all means that chances are good that you will find yourself working virtually at some point in the near future.  In the last three years of consulting with SEI, I have worked virtually at least 50% of the time – both in support of my clients and in collaboration with our other offices in Cincinnati, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Dallas.  I have found that working virtually can be even more productive than working in cubicle-land if you employ a healthy dose of organizational discipline.  Here are some of the approaches that work for me:

1. Use your ‘Commute time’ to get organized. One of the biggest benefits of working virtually is the ability to recover your commute time.  For some people, this could mean an additional 3 hours added to productive time in your day.  For me, this is the time I use to brew up a nice pot of Dunkin Donuts, prioritize my task list (beginning of the day commute time), and then note any follow-ups for early the next day (end of day commute time).  Know what the first thing you want to work on the next day is.  Don’t sleep through this time, you will leave an opportunity on the table.

2. Learn to manage your inbox(es). When working virtually, your computer is your command center.  It’s impossible to know what you need to focus on if you have 1,600 unread messages and nothing is flagged for follow-up.  Personally, I use three flags – personal, SEI, and client, and then prioritize accordingly.  Once you close an e-mail, file it in the appropriate folder and repeat.  I like to keep my inbox to 50 e-mails or less.  Find out what your sweet spot is, and try to stick with it.

3. Prioritize your work by the 80/20 rule. There is always a small percentage of your work that will yield a larger return.  Identify those items, and nail those first.  Do the 20% of work that gives you 80% of your results. Remember, excuses don’t matter.  What matters are results.

4. Take a Lunch Break and Reward Progress. Virtual work is loaded with distractions.  Laundry waiting to be done.  Playstation 3 and Modern Warfare.  Facebook.  Twitter.  If you are disciplined about the way you structure your day, you can use these distractions to your advantage.  Take a lunch break and knock out a few non-work related things while you eat.  Reward the fact that you are absolutely slaying your to-do list.  Trust me, manage this right and you will waste less time at home than you do around the water cooler at the office.

5. Establish a ‘Virtual Hierarchy’ that allows you to close issues. When working virtually, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of getting into an endless e-mail conversation on issues without seeing any real progress.  I like to apply time-frames and a sanity check on these issues, and then immediately schedule a teleconference to discuss if I don’t feel like progress is being made.  This includes knowing who the stakeholders are, what the escalation path is, and documenting when documents come in and go out for review.  At the top of this hierarchy – that’s right – a good old fashion face-to-face.  Nothing beats it.  Ever.

This is a short list, and many bullets and sub-bullets can be added even to these.  Are you working virtually or have you worked virtually in the past?  What’s working for you?

In Today’s Virtual Workplace, Organization is King is a post from: HR Think Tank

I get it, some of you may never like soccer.  Some of you just can’t stomach the annoying buzz of the vuvuzela for 90 minutes just to watch a game end in a 0-0 tie.  Like it or not, the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world.  So big in fact, that according to Digital Blog All Things Digital, the World Cup is creating some unparalleled buzz out there on Twitter.

Trendrr, which pulls data from Twitter’s API had 48 different World Cup-related terms showing up about 150,000 times an hour, similar to the intensity from Monday at Apple’s iPhone 4 unveiling. Kafka goes on to note that while the iPhone 4 traffic crested only in the last hour of Steve Jobs’s presentation, the World Cup intensity has been pretty steady with more than 8,000 per minute (that’s a rate of 480,000 hourly) right after the first goal of the tournament.

Love it or hate it, the World is passionate about soccer.  There’s just something about national pride that incites a level of passion that’s unifying and really cool.

I use soccer as the example, because the World Cup is hot right now.  You get a similar unifying force and passionate outpouring for the Olympics and in any big sports city right here nationally.  I was at the Celtics – Lakers game last night and it was so loud, you would have though everyone in the crowd knew each other and had coordinated chants in Sully’s Tap before the game.  Red Sox fans are so loyal, they have long eclipsed the consecutive sell-out record (455 games was previous record, broken September 8th, 2008 – I was there) , and are still adding to that tally.  We are so unified we refer to ourselves as Red Sox Nation, and we have a President, the Rem Dawg!  I use Boston as an example, because I live here and love Boston sports, but there are fans like this in Philadelphia and Chicago too.  Great sports cities with rich tradition, and a knack for developing passionate fan bases.

Here’s my challenge for the businesses out there: Try to replicate that kind of passion amongst your workforce around your brand.  I know you already have at least 3 excuses in your head for why it can’t be done.  I can hear them now – my company is too big, we need these strict corporate policies, our employees can’t buy $7.50 beers two at a time like they can at the Fenway.  I know, I hear you, but I think you’re wrong.  In fact, think there are a lot of companies getting this right, and the dividends are incredible!  Talent attraction AND retention!

Who is getting this right?  Video interviewing firm HireVue definitely comes to mind.  Here’s a company that has a ton of momentum, and I think it’s because of their people.  Give Josh Schwede 15 minutes over a beer and tell me that you aren’t an advocate for what they are trying to do, or that you don’t want to replicate that kind of passion in your company.  Need something bigger?  Locally, one company that I consistently see employees buzz about is EMC.  Here’s a sample of tweets from Polly Pearson, VP of Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement from last week:

“Just got EMC’s 2011 FORTUNE Best Places to Work For book: “Innovation, Passion, SUCCESS!” Includes refs to 2.0, TWITTER + EMC Tweeps”

“Excited to share EMC’s story at BU tomorrow! Attendees are business leaders looking at new models for innovation, workforce management”

3 of Polly’s top 5 words in her tweet cloud are #emc, EMC, and thanks.  Her top 5 hash-tags: #emc, #emcworld, #emcs, #jobs, #1.  I know what you are thinking.  Jason, that’s obvious, because Polly is EMC’s VP of Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement.  Isn’t that her job?  Yes, of course.  But she’s out there talking about her company, and people like me are writing about how it’s cool that there are people out there being passionate about their company.  And let me ask you – does your company have a VP of Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement?

That’s what I thought.

(Note: If you were wondering, neither HireVue nor EMC are clients of SEI-Boston, LLC. or of me personally at the time of this post.  I am, however, guilty of liking soccer, going to Sully’s Tap before Celtics games, and being a loud and obnoxious member of Red Sox Nation.  Now stop reading this disclaimer and go out and make your company a great place to work)

Sports and Business: Are Your Employees Passionate About Your Company? is a post from: HR Think Tank

First of all, I think that most of the time spent in meetings is a waste of time.  I don’t think the actual meetings are a waste of time, since they are an enabler to face-to-face interaction, which is critical, but EVERY meeting should have a set duration, agenda, and a desired outcome before you get to the table.  And about that duration,  I think that in most cases, meetings should limited to 20 minutes.  There are just too many channels for real-time communication to save it all up for a three-hour marathon sessions.

In any case, in today’s business world, meetings still exist, so you should schedule them wisely.  Back when I was a road warrior consultant, I got accustomed to Monday being a travel day and Friday being a “home office” day to catch up on paperwork and local office requirements.  This schedule is convenient for both personal and professional purposes.  Personally, you don’t miss critical weekend time with your friends and family, and professionally, it pulls your real work into the most productive days of the work-week: Tuesday through Thursday.  If you have a meeting that you need people to show up to, and you want their attention, avoid scheduling on Mondays or Fridays.

Also, in my opinion the best time to schedule those meetings is mid-morning.  Ending your meeting at lunch is a great idea too – it helps bound the meeting, and it provides an opportunity for you to take your client, or your staff to lunch following the meeting.  Need to get at a senior executive?  Look for early morning, before their calendar becomes completely derailed, or early evening, where they are less likely to have their schedules blocked to handle other unexpected fire drills.

But remember, scheduling is only half the battle.  To truly excel in this space you have to master meeting execution.  The #1 reason that people complain about having too many meetings is not only because of the quantity of the meetings, but they are also being dragged through unproductive time wasting meetings with no objective and no clear articulated path to solve a problem.  Do you know your audience?  Knowing the attendees and how they consume information to make decisions is critical to meeting success.  Before you block the calendar for your next session, make sure to think through the problem, objective, and approach.  Attendees, duration, and even the venue will set the tone.  Your job is to get stuff done.  Are meeting habits in your organization getting in the way of that?

Are You Having Board Meetings or Bored Meetings? is a post from: HR Think Tank