Tuesday, November 10, 2009

10 Nov 2009: Managing People

We all are capable of what matters most

Netflix Management
Loyalty is Good
- Loyalty is good as a stabilizer
- But, unlimited loyalty to a shrinking firm, or to an ineffective employee, is not what we are about
- Hard work is not directly relevant - it's about effectiveness (not effort) even though effectiveness is harder to assess than effort



Tuesday, November 3, 2009

3 Nov 2009: "I Love Technology..." (Isaku quoting Kip)

BASECAMP
Web-based tools for managing projects ($20/mo or so)
http://basecamphq.com

List of web-based tools

Thursday, October 29, 2009

29 Oct 2009: Crucial Conversations

"Give me a lever long enough ... and I shall move the world." - Archimedes

If I have an issue, do I want someone to tell me about it?
- Yes, in the right way.
- In the right setting.

Why don't you tell someone their trousers are undone?
- We may be afraid - the other person's attitude is challenging
- Past experience may inform a resistance to doing this

What are the costs of not taking on a crucial conversation
- parking lot veto (watercooler veto)

Everyone (93%) workes with an untouchable - someone dishonest, incompetent, bullying, conniving
- More than half say he's done if or more than 4 years
- They damage moreale, hurt customers, sap productivity
- Fewer than 1 in 8 are willing to talk about it

- 44% say they put in only effort required
- 75% say they could be more effective

Silence Fails
Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution
* 150+ hrs of observation

Results
- Fact-Free Planning
- AWOL sponsors (need to check in regularly and often)
- Skirting
- Project Chicken (escalate and see who flinches first - choosing a whipping boy)
- Team Failures

- overbudget
- missed deadlines
- poor quality of functionality
- damaged morale
- no work-life balance

Wbat if people deal wit the crucial confrontation?
- cut dollar impact
- reduce cost savings

Leadership Skill
1) What results do you want that you're not getting?
2) What crucial conversation is ot being held or not being held well that perpetuates your problem?

When emotions kick in, you're unlikely to do your best.
As soon as a conversation changes, the motive changes. (No longer about project, but about winning the conversation - I'm going to dominate you!)

Identify:
1) What do I want for myself?
2) What do I want for the other person?
3) What do I want for our relationship?

What do I want to be better or different after this conversation.

We see facts and interpret them with a narrative (tell ourselves a story).
We generate an emotional response to our story - and act accordingly.
People see our reactions to emotions that are caused by a story not understood by the other.

Thoughts are electrical, but emotions are chemical.
Emotions have a shorter half life.
Identify if things aren't working and say, "Can we talk about this in 20 minutes?"

"The measure of success is not whether or not you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year
- John Duluth

"What you can't communicate runs your life." - Dr. Robert Anthony
"Don't trade the possibility of an uncomfortable conversation for the certainty of bad relationshipas and results."

We are left to deal with the most complex and challenging conversations of our lives with the same set of skills we would use to deal with a salivating predator. (Blood leaver our brain and goes somewhere else when we're frustrated.)

Start with the Heart
- Learn to look (make it safe, master my stories)
- State my path (explore others' paths, move to action)

So what happened today?
- look for more facts to build a more complete story
- the more mutual respect, more shared goals, the safer we all feel

If someone said something that wasn't true, we should try to understand why someone would think that and understand their point of view. (Joseph Smith)

Name the game and take away the power the other peson is using against you.

Motives that Kill Dialogue
- save face
- look good
- keep the peace (artificial stability/remedy)
- avoid conflict
- win
- be right
- punish

If you're trying to deal with "the hog" through external controls, you never solve the problem.

Why do I need to identify my motive?
The motive you can't see controls oyu
you aren't that good an actor
If you can see it, you can't fix it
Questions provoke the brain

Learn to look for silence and violence
silence, withdrawng, avoiding, masking, DIALOGUE, controlling, labeling, attacking, violence

The sooner you notice you're not

IT IS AS HARD TO SEE ONESELF AS TO LOOK BACKWARDS WITHOUT TRUNING AROUND.

Present facts, not opinions
State motives

People never become definsive about what you're saying. People become definsive because of why they think you're saing it.

You know I care about your goals
You know that I care about you.
With enough safety you can talk about anything.

If safety is at risk, don't water down the content,
Can one person who disagrees respectfully make it safe for the entire group?
19/20 yes!

You cannot run away from a weakness. You must fight it out. Why not now, where you stand?

All my life I've wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.: Search for signs of Intelligent life inthe Universe

If I can change, it will improve the relationship.
a lot of evidence shows that if 1 changes, then the relationship improves

The Bonds that Make us Free

if each person wakes up each morning with an anxious concern for the other, then you're going to get good places. (Pres. Hinckley)

Thursday, October 22, 2009

22 Oct 2009: Continuing the Budget Discussion

F&A Federal Administration - 42%

70% of F&A stays at top Bridge funding
30% of F&A goes to college
10% of college funds goes to department
any left over funds go to the PI

F&A at BYU stays at the top (VP for Research)
Some gets channeled in several different colleges
Different colleges decide what departments to help and within depts which professors to support

The mission of BYU is undergraduate teaching
BYU Emphasis on student mentoring
2 avenues: faculty funding mentoring ($500) and student funding ($1500)

Fast lane NSF
Cover Sheet
Table of Contents
References Cited
Budget (Including Justification)
Facilities (In Kind goods and what the facility offers you)
PI CoPI Info (Put in system by Grants Administrator at BYU)
suggested Reviewers
Project Summary
Project Description
Bio Sketch
Facilities
Current and Pending
Supplementary Docs (Evidence)
Deviation Authorization (Money can't be spent in certain ways)
Additional Single Copy
Resubmission details - reviewer

There are different categories:
Gifts cannot have F&A attached
Research accounts are all separated
Grant Manager (name them by name)
Name the name and salary and qualifications

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Grant Timeline Revisited

- Meet with grant writing team at Department of Education of McKay School
- Talk with IRB (and find out timeline)
- Email Manohar & phone
- Email Mulmiji
- Email Mahabir Pun
- Get HLCIT update

- Submit funding proposal to Erika
- Run proposal by Erika Feinauer
- Run proposal by Randy Davies
- Run proposal by David Wiley

- Question
- Narrative
- Lit Review (Spencer)
- Budget
- F&A Indirect Costs
- Evaluation
- CV (Tiffany, Wiley, Davies, Manohar, Mahabir)

20 Oct 2009: Aaron Popham: Grants & University System Details

Government Grants
Any federal contract would have to go through www.grants.gov (searchable, key word search)
Federal Registration: any entity or action that is passed through govt is recorded in registry
RFPs and RFAs (Federal Registry Announcement & Dept Description of that information)
Federal Registry is best place to find details about funding grants.

NSF website has a nice engine for investigating RFAs www.nsf.gov (get number and search on grants.gov)
National Department of Education
Go to State Govt website and search for grants. You need to know someone in order to be alerted.
IRIS database (Illinois Research Institute System) - BYU pays for a subscription

All university grants need to go through approval process of department and university first
All grants that have work with human subjects need approval of IRB

30-60 days is release of announcement of RFP

Grant writing is different than scholarly writing
Need for scholarly support
Write to a distinct set of criteria (which means different language)
A faculty member that tries to go it alone may leave out essential nuances of the grant lingo

BYU's F&A On Campus Indirect Cost is 50% Off-Campus Indirect costs is 28% (>120 days away)
Budget
Personnel
Benefits
Capital Equipment >$5,000 per item
Supplies <$5,000 per item
Travel (Air tickets, food, hotel)
Stipend (Training for participation, subsistence allowance)
Contractual (consultants)
F&A (Facilitites and Administration)

BYU uses a modified indirect costs (BYU only takes FA on the first $25K of the total of all contractual work); there is no F&A on stipend. Put as much into contractual embed travel costs in the contractual agreement.

Division at BYU dedicated to grant disbursement

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

13 Oct 2009: CV Preparation

C.V
Most recent first (reverse chronological)

2 page abbreviated
Presentations - up to 5
Publications - up to 5
list of recent collaborators

Name
Contact Info
Education (Degrees & Process)
Profile
Publications
Other Writings
Employment
Presentations
Memberships (Current and Recent)
Skills? (provide context for reader)
Grants
Awards
Teaching
Service
Leadership
Languages
Research Agenda & Interests (current)

Cover Letter
Objective
Names of References