Masonry Magazine April 2008 Page. 50
Full Contact Project Management
By "Coach" Gary Micheloni
Spring Training Fundamentals
'Pitch' a winning RFI for your team.
Holy mackerel! Is spring training here already? No more football or basketball? Oh, man! But baseball is here now, just in the nick of time. You may not need to worry about being a QB for a while, but leadership is always in season. And, baseball is the perfect sport to show how this happens.
Ever been to a spring training game for a Major League Baseball team? What a great experience: You sit close, and all the seats seem terrific. You can see the faces on the players. Heck, you can hear them talking with each other. You're close enough that you can almost read the dial on the radar gun, and that's what I want to discuss with you.
The radar gun: It's all about control and tracking.
Why do coaches and trainers use radar guns? They use them to monitor pitchers' performances. And the radar gun tells which pitch speeds the batters seem to handle well, or not so well.
So, have you figured out the connection to good, full-contact project management yet? I'm hoping it'll be obvious to you, because being a good PM is all about being in control, and having a pretty good idea about what might be happening next. Predictions and tracking are key. That's precisely where the RFI (Request for Information) comes in. It's a great tracking tool and can be used to predict performance. Let's talk about those things.
Turns out, an RFI is really the best tool in the box for tracking things. Why? A key to creating a winning RFI is putting a deadline on it. We let our clients know when we need the answer. If we need it today, then the fact that the job specs might give the client two or three weeks to answer an RFI is of no concern to us. We remember that, almost always, it is our client who has the bigger concern with meeting the schedule. So, it is up to us to advise him of any urgency, and it is up to him to answer us in a timely manner so we can stay on his schedule.
Every RFI absolutely has to have the following: the date written and date required; the number of the RFI; description of the problem; and a reminder that the issue has potential
COACH GARY SAYS:
"Don't overlook the obvious! M every tool looks like a hammer
The Voice of the Masonry Industry