Boot Camps Oo-RAH!

Cheryl Croce Sr. Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

One of our instructors, Cindy Scheetz, enthusiastically told me about her participation in a fitness boot camp, which is a militaristic approach to physical fitness and exercise. She's a three-time veteran, and has improved with each session. She absolutely loves it. I asked Cindy about the program, and she gave me the contact information. I was intrigued after speaking with the instructor and founder, Dr. Aaron Oberst. I joined the Dr. Drill Instructor Program (DDIP) in Lansdale, Pennsylvania this May, and started on the first day of June. It is an eight week program, three days a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), from 5:30am to 6:30am, rain or shine.

I've got two weeks under my proverbial belt, and I now understand why Cindy likes the program so much. There is so much positive energy and encouragement from the instructors, squad leaders and participants. I feel like I accomplish something new in each session. I will also tell you it's the hardest I've ever physically worked. There are days where it hurts to blink. As the saying goes, "No pain, no gain!"

There are a few lessons I've learned from the fitness boot camp that are applicable to our five-day Project Management (PM) Boot Camp:


* Leave your perceptions at the door: People who have been managing projects for years will think they know project management. Similarly, I thought I was exercising at my maximum potential by getting on an elliptical machine for 20 minutes three times a week. Exercise is exercise; project management is project management. While it is true I exert myself on the elliptical, and it is a form of exercise, I am learning from DDIP getting in shape is more than just moving your legs and arms on a machine. You have to use every attribute you have: mind, body and spirit. Boot Camps are designed to deconstruct your perceptions and show you what you should be doing. It engages and challenges. In the end, you will work better and smarter than you did previously.

* Discipline is essential: If you cut corners, you will find you are doing more harm than good. Dr. Drill stresses the importance of always having a water source with you. The second week of DDIP, I learned if you don't have a water source, two things will happen: Dr. Drill will make you do your maximum set of push-ups while you are at attention with the rest of your squad, and you get muscle cramps because you lose about 10% of water when you work out. Both suck. No one likes to be called out on mistakes, especially if they are easily avoided by following basic rules. Follow the basics, and you won't experience pain and suffering on projects. Do you really want to explain why your project is over-budget and not finished on time? I'm thinking no. There are reasons there are lessons about work breakdown structures and identifying and documenting risks!

* Motivation is infectious: There are roughly 100 participants in the fitness boot camp program. We are all at different skill levels, and we are all there for one reason: to improve ourselves. What is especially wonderful is that the veterans will encourage new recruits, and in turn new recruits motivate the veterans to do their best and set examples. With the PM Boot Camp, everyone is there to learn and to be better project managers.

* Keep on movin'! Don't stop, no: During one of our runs, Dr. Drill broke out into song. "Keep on movin'! Don't stop, noooo." He asked us to repeat this, even the singing part. The final lesson I'd like to share is once you leave boot camp, you don't leave what you've learned behind. Keep pushing yourself, your teams, and your organization forward in applying solid project management techniques to your projects.


Ready to leave your perceptions about project management behind? To be motivated? To learn something new and to apply it to the way you work? If you are interested in project management and our PM Boot Camp five-day instructor-led training courses, please go to the event calendar on our website.

Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

H1N1 Visualization

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

With all the Pandemic warnings, I thought it would be nice to provide a visualization of the actual data being collected : Here & Here

Beyond the pure hysteria that has been associated with this infection, I find it amazing how we are utilizing new and different tools to educate ourselves.



So as I typically do, I ask you to pose the following question to your peers :

What have we done to gain visibility to "process pandemics?"

It important to understand the metrics that are key performance indicators, but more importantly is distilling those metrics into meaningful dashboards that are useful and user friendly. Because at the end of the day, we need to act on that information to help reduce risk and enhance performance of our troubleshooting teams.


Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Mom's Lessons on Customer Service

	Cheryl Croce Sr. Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 10. It’s a particularly special one, as my younger sister will be celebrating her very first Mother’s Day. Both my sister and my mom have taught me what it is to be a strong and caring person.

In particular, there are many things I have learned from my mom that apply to how I approach managing projects. Whether she realized it or not, she gave me my first lesson in customer service.




One year, when I was younger, my mom prepared a holiday dinner. She made home-made manicotti, lasagna, meatballs, all the side dishes you can imagine, and a full turkey. It was a feast you might see in a Norman Rockwell painting (well, if Norman Rockwell had been Italian). My family gathered at the table, eager to dig in and enjoy the food.

My grandfather – her father – sat down, tucked a napkin into his shirt, picked up his utensils and surveyed the food in front of him.

My mom took great pride in her feast. That changed when my grandfather furrowed his brow and said,

“What? No ham?”

While my mom was less than thrilled about what he said, my grandfather practically licked his plate clean. To this day, she’ll bring up this story whenever we sit down for a holiday dinner.

The following are customer service nuggets of knowledge I garnered from that incident:

* Low hanging fruits – those projects we view as seemingly non-essential - are sometimes the sweetest to our customers.
* Understanding what is important to the customer takes active listening, observation and, on occasion, patience.
* As much as we strive for perfection, there’s always one person who isn’t going to be happy. If there’s something missing, it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not personal. You learn from the feedback, and deliver the unexpected at the next opportunity.


For all the moms and moms-to-be out there, have a wonderful Mother’s Day!


Interested in learning more about Customer Service? Attend one of our Customer Service Stars classes. These one-day classes will be held on May 20, 2009 and June 4, 2009. Click here for more details.


Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Hiring Process

Karl Christianson
President and CEO
Veris Marshwinds Partners


The turbulent economic conditions of the past few months have resulted, in many cases, in the reduction of staff. As conditions begin to improve, many of these open positions will be filled through the hiring of new employees.

The hiring process generally begins with the review of a resume supplied by either an agency or your own internal recruiting process. When reviewing a resume, there are many factors to consider. Your primary goal is to interview and hire the right employee, one that satisfies the needs of the open position. A simple method, which we employ when analyzing a resume, is to rate the candidate based on the following factors

Some of the selection criteria we utilize when reviewing a resume are listed below:

1. Does the candidate's resume reflect exceptional performance at prior jobs? This includes awards, recognition, etc. Are those achievements measurable?

2. Does the candidate display a history of job stability, little job hopping?

3. Why is the candidate seeking a new job? Is the reason justifiable?

4. How long has the candidate been on the job market, and where else has he/she interviewed?

5. How sophisticated are their presentation skills, which can be judged by their past positions and duties?

6. What types of companies have provided them with employment in the past? If your company is a large, sophisticated organization, and the applicant has always worked at smaller organizations, will that applicant have the experience and depth to successfully function in your firm?

The answers to the above questions should be positive and provide you with a feeling that the resume you are reviewing indicates a possible hire. The next step, and possibly the most important, is your initial interview, whether on the telephone or in-person. You should be able to conclude at the end of the initial meeting whether this applicant is the type of individual who is knowledgeable, affable, speaks well, has a pleasant appearance and, in summary, would be a great addition to your organization.

If all of the above factors are positive, you may consider that you have found a low risk applicant, and should move forward with your normal in depth screening procedure, which should include the checking of references. If all subsequent interviews and reference checks are positive, you have probably found a winner whom you should hire.
Good luck in filling your next open position.

New Security

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

With any grand event, comes those who will do what they must to survive.

In today's economical climate, that means there are more and more highly skilled workers being laid off, and in turn are using their skills for ill-will.

In this case, it was a laid off engineer who was cutting communication cables and trying to extort money from Comcast and Verizon.

Well the FBI has a trojan virus for that:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Security&articleId=9131778&taxonomyId=17&pageNumber=1

It's been mentioned elsewhere that with the ongoing lay-offs, there will be an onslaught of cyber-crimes.

In the past, we've always said that the biggest security threat to an organization is their own employees. It's only a matter of time before someone is disgruntled by a promotion, or lack there-of; or maybe it's not something at work.... it may be skyrocketing debt that is forcing them to consider unseemly means of income.

So a few points:

- If you're currently unemployed, or feel that you may be soon; now is the perfect time to re-train and find some new skills, focus that fear and look at training.

- If you are a hiring manager, about to make the decision for a round of lay-offs; be aware that it may require some special planning beyond doing it on a Friday afternoon.

- If you are a security manager, now is the time to be proactive; if you don't have a continual improvement plan in place, seek consulting and/or training to get a concrete plan in place to manage your risk


Of course above all else, never forget the gifts we've been given. It is up to us to ensure they are used for good will.


...then again, I'm sure the FBI won't have any problems finding you....



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Focused Fear

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

I've written on our other blogs in the past about some of our more momentous airline incidents, well this story stuck me as very compelling :

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/14/plane.emergency/

A gentlemen who had some flight experience with single engine propeller planes was on a flight, and by sheer luck, noticed the pilot become unresponsive behind the wheel of a 10,000lb turbo propeller airplane :

"The only thing I knew how to do up there was talk on the radio," White told WINK. "I've only been up there (in the cockpit) one other time. I made it a point to ask the pilot -- not Joe, but another one -- 'How do I talk on the radio?' and they showed me what button to push."

While he spoke to the air controllers, they actually called someone who knew how to operate the airplane and were able to walk him through landing safely.


So why do I mention this article? I think a few points are very important.

1 - Being aware and curious of our surroundings, even though it may not be "your job" ; never stop asking those around you questions. Someday those little tid-bits of information will come in handy

2 - Trusting those with knowledge to guide you safely in an emergency; it's sometimes quite apparent when we are out of our realm, know that moment and embrace the fact that by trusting those around us, we can make it back to solid ground in one piece

3 - In those moments of peril, be personally or with a project, focus that fear. Sometimes it's the fear of failure, the fear of budget overuns, or the fear of personal impact; Focused Fear is an asset. Embrace it.


Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.

Living All In

	Neal Leininger Senior Consultant Veris Associates, Inc.

I hope everyone enjoyed the wonderful weather we had this weekend in Philly.

This time of year always makes me optimistic!

It just feels like we were meant to be here, doing what we love to do.

A great friend and mentor runs a Construction Knowledge website and blog, he posted a 'vonderful-good' article on one of the gentlemen from "Band of Brothers" ; you should check it out:

http://constructionknowledge.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/are-you-living-all-in/

My favorite quote is how :
"When Forrest was injured on his jump into Holland, he was waiting in a make-shift field hospitals for a doctor to move up to the front. When the doctor finally came to treat him, Forrest realized his family doctor from the little town of Fogelsville, PA was also going to be his doctor in Holland. He loved that wild coincidence."

I challenge everyone to approach this year with renewed vigor, it is time to put our defensive strategies aside, and go "All In."



Copyright (c) Veris Associates, Inc. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Comments contents are the opinions of the person posting the comment (commenter) and not necessarily those or endorsed by Veris Associates, Inc. Veris Associates, Inc. reserves the right to remove any and all comments it wishes without any recourse of the commenter. Decision of Veris Associates, Inc. is final.