3 Books on Productivity

FAVORITE BOOKS
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM

JUST ENOUGH PROJECT MANAGEMENT
By Curtis R. Cook
(McGraw-Hill, 2005)

SIX SIGMA FOR MANAGERS
By Greg Brue
(McGrawHill, 2002)

HOW TO SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE
By Tiki Kustenmachers with Lothar J. Seiwart
(McGraw-Hill, 2004)

In many things we do, we employ project management method for planning, implementing and evaluating our work and results for maximum productivity.

In four easily understood and practical steps featuring useful templates and checklists, author Curtis Cook presents a concise American National Standards Institute standard for project management.

This four-step process involves initiating, planning, executing & controlling and closure. Cooks writes that initiating includes determining what the project should accomplish, recognize whether the project should, indeed, be done, select and bestow necessary authority upon the project manager and launch the project with a Project Charter.

The second step includes the process of developing detailed plan for the project that includes the task list, resource assignments, schedule, budget, communication plan, risk plan and change control process. Once the project sponsor approves the plan, it is known as the project baseline.

Once the plan is approved, work begins. The third step insures that the technical work is being done according to the plan, and the variances are identified and acted on to keep the project on track. Project status reports are generated to keep stakeholders informed.

Finally, the job is finished and the project is closed. However, this step is not as simple as it seems. It requires handover of the finished project to the customer, assessment of how things were done, capture lessons learned to be passed on to others and, equally important, rewarding the project team and celebrating success.

The HR manager could definitely use project management process in implementing hr programs by dividing those “continuous processes” into short-term chunks and manage them accordingly. For example, each performance management cycle could be one project that will run for six-months to one year. This will avoid having repetitive jobs becoming routine and gives the HR person an opportunity to look at the job with a fresh look and to inject improvement every cycle.

I am sure that by now you are familiar with the Six Sigma approach to managing and extracting optimum quality productivity from your organization. It aims to eliminate errors, reduce costs and better satisfy customers. Author Greg Brue gives us the basics of Six Sigma, its methodology and tools. Brue describes Six Sigma as a journey to improve productivity and profitability. HE says it is not theoretical; it’s an active, hands-on practice that gets results. In short, you don’t contemplate Six Sigma; you do it.

Can Six Sigma be used in HR? Yes. It can save you a lot of papers, printing and other excessive supplies and efforts. Brue asserts that Six Sigma is about arming your human “assets” with the training, resources and knowledge to solve problems. “It is also about taking a leadership journey to guide those assets toward ever increasing achievement. It asks hard questions about your processes and gets the data that supports them. It provides solutions that fit your unique processes.”

Everything starts from the way you manage your personal life. Productivity at work starts with productivity in your personal life and cultivating good habits of living. Author Tiki Kustenmacher offers seven practical steps to letting go of your burdens and living a happier life or how to simply simplify your life.

These seven steps are: 1. Simplify yourself with simpler things, i.e., sort out your workplace, unpile your office, clear your environment and overcome your forgetfulness. 2. Simplify your finances to achieve financial independence without complexes by getting rid of your money blockages and debts, breaking out of money spells, stop worrying about security and working out your own concept of wealth. 3. Simplify your time and manage it actively. 4. Simplify your health, listen to your body and conserve your energies. 5. Simplify your relationships; learn to maintain, deepen and enjoy relationships with other people with mutual giving and receiving. 6. Simplify your life partnership; learn to look beneath the current surface of your relationship and to continue on your way—together instead of just side by side. 7. Simplify yourself; learn to understand yourself better and move towards the purpose of your life.

There, if you can manage yourself, you can manage other people; If you can lead a personal productive life, you can lead your organization to increasing productivity and excellent results.

BOOKSHELF:

PLANNING AND MANAGING EFFICIENTLY: A quick reference kit
• MANAGING IN TIMES OF CHANGE by Michael Maginn
• PROJECT MANAGEMENT by Gary Heerkens
• HOW TO PLAN AND EXECUTE STRATEGY by Walace Stettinius, et al
• HOW TO MANAGE PERFORMANCE by Robert Bacal
(McGraw-Hill, 2004, Limited Edition)