Validation
28DEC2020
Without going into depth on ideals of engineering design process, it seems worth writing a few notes on validation following from the recent Signal v. Noise post Validation is a Mirage. I generally agree with the thoughts exposed, and to add a supplement to the last paragraph: speaking with others can be very helpful in gathering ideas for specific methods to build your confidence. Internet searches can do this as well, however sharing a few thoughts with others can jostle the mind in such a way that new methods and thoughts emerge.
The trick: avoid people with negative attitudes who will shake your confidence. If this happens unexpectedly, remember that it may take getting past 3 No statements to get to a productive discussion with the individual. Good luck!
Book List
7NOV2020
Though hands-on approaches and making mistakes often seem the best way to embed lessons in the mind, vicarious learning by reading should not be neglected and can speed up many learning processes. Though the majority of our recommendations are listed on the Best Practices page, one book deserves special mention here:
Title | Author(s) |
---|---|
The Unwritten Laws of Engineering | James G Skakoon and W.J. King |
Read, enjoy and benefit.
Last person on Earth
14DEC2019
This little technique helps to get through mental blockages caused by uncertainty in organizational interaction, individual motivation or conflicting constraints. When facing a difficult question, decision or process development need, simply visualize yourself as the only person left in the team, group, department, company, or simply the last person on Earth and had to get the job done or make the thing work. If you were then in those circumstances (lots of organizational constraints removed), what would you do?
Even if the answer there doesn't end up being the final solution, the thought processes coming off of this question will at least give you a starting point, framework and opinion to from which to work.
Accomplish-Plan Framework (APF)
8DEC2019
This time of year brings year-end review and next-year planning discussions. Following from attempts to leverage experience to date (e.g. "always invert") and instead of the more typical: "what were our goals, how did we do?", a new framework came to mind this year. For now, we may call it the "accomplish-plan framework" (APF for those who prefer acronyms). In brief: it is four helpful combinations of yes/no, accomplish and plan as illustrated below. Once through the reflection of a year or other useful period invited by this framework, it may be helpful to morph any success or frustration emerging in the thought or discussion into a list of goals for the next period.
Items which are "accomplished and planned" are the classic definition of success, e.g. we planned to increase revenue and met this goal.
Items "accomplished but not planned" may be called successes and are often the outcome of changing conditions, "course change," a fortuitous inadvertant discovery, or unexpected combinations of people and ideas. These usally carry some frustration and jostling during execution, but shouldn't be denigrated for lack of planning if time is of the essence.
Items "planned but not accomplished" often carry frustration or regret, however as they are often "overrun" by items accomplished but not planned, regrets should be minimized.
Items "neither planned nor accomplished" might also be labeled ideas which didn't have the time or resource for development. These may also be frustrations embedded in individuals or the organization which need a little nurturing to strengthen or create business.
To conclude: a quick look around the internet when searching for related terms yielded the Eisenhower Box which is also helpful and similar to Inbox Zero , but no direct hits. Please let me know if you find one through the contact form! Good luck with accomplishments and goals.
Data Graphics and Presentation
11NOV2019
This post is to capture a few distinctive presentation examples, both good and bad. As we often learn by mistake, the first note goes to the Gettysburg Address PowerPoint presentation with credit to Peter Norvig.
Time Management
7JUL2019
Credit to Fast Company for catching this gem of an article on how intense scheduling stifles creative thinking.
Signal vs. Noise
14MAR2019
Without ado: credit to the folks at Basecamp for two great recent posts in their Signal vs. Noise blog. One on building trust and the other on design lessons: consistency, confusion and context.
Where the (US) Wind Turbines Are
1MAR2019
A Vox article with good charts related to wind power in the US recently caught our attention. Tracing links turned up a Washington post article. Going straight to the source often a good approach, here it pays to check out the viewer of the US turbine database directly.
Friendship and Innovation
15FEB2019
A recent article in the New Yorker tells a good story of a tough problem from the early days of Google and a friendship which much benefitted the development of the company. The pairs of Hewlett and Packark and Jobs and Wozniak also come to mind here.
Levels of Explanation
15FEB2019
We have long observed that much conversational friction in at least engineering is caused by ill handling of levels of explanation and reduction. The need for careful consideration in this area is caused by different levels of understanding and awareness of a topic. For a good conversation and conveyance of information, levels of understanding and awareness much match, i.e. words and phrases must be formed in a way the recipient of the information can understand. As an aside, it is often though not always true that understanding is correlated with levels of an organizational hierarchy (the higher, the less understanding and awareness), as well as age and education or experience in an area. This explanation of quantum computing at multiple levels provides some insight into how to speak effectively at multiple levels.
The Art of the Question
15FEB2019
To our understanding the form of the question is as important, if not more important than the answer or solution. An ill-formed question can generate a huge waste of time and effort. An article at Stack Overflow helps us understand how to ask a good question. The XANSYS archive rules (Netiquette) have a few good thoughts on what to do before asking a question; credit to them for the reference to the through insight on how to ask questions the smart way from Eric Steven Raymond. Read, think, do, then question.
Trend from the archives: Software Eating the World
15FEB2019
As we at Almury believe strongly in learning the lessons of history to attempt to avoid repeating mistakes and to help us build on the successes of our predecessors, we will occasionally post significant articles from history for review, reflection and learning. Think the last page of MIT's technology review. The first is one on software eating the world by Marc Andresson from the Wall Street Journal in 2011. This one appears to have resonated with companies and colleagues I know since.
Context: Electricity Generation Mix by State
15FEB2019
We put a high value on contextualizing questions and knowning the world around you, as often in absence of intentional paradigm shifts, context defines the answer or solution. As an example of energy context: do you know the mix of energy production for the state where you live? The New York Times recently wrote a nice article with graphics on this topic of electricity mix by states within the United States. Enjoy!
Design Thinking
26JAN2019
In the theme of standing on the shoulders of giants: it helps to start with three references to design thinking: the Wikipedia article, the Stanford d.school virtual crash course, and the IDEO U introduction. Given the evident effort, we have nothing further to add. If we did, we would edit the Wikipedia article.
Confidence Building and Argumentation
26JAN2019
Much depends on our ability to build confidence. In our experience, it is unlikely an individual is able to build confidence in others (i.e. make the argument) without first building confidence in herself. Confidence may rest on past experience, the work of others, and often simple careful, focused consideration of various sources, comparison of the conclusions drawn and checking of these conclusions with simple methods. Recently, an article in composites world caught our attention due to its well-written comparison of two approaches to building confidence in materials. The structural engineers among you may recognize it is difficult to have confidence in the parts if we don't have confidence in the materials. We believe it is worth a read for the variety of concepts and lessons within. See article Accelerating materials insertion: Where do virtual allowables fit?; comments are welcome using the contact page.
Beginning
25JAN2019
As beginning is often difficult, it helps to remember the world is a more tolerant place than is commonly thought. Good logic for beginning is often the belief that an individual or organization can do a thing better than those individuals or organizations which already exist. To the contrary per the unity of opposites, one may be tempted to think that if it is worth doing, it would already be done. Between these two thoughts lies the cleavage: "and here begins".
And so begins Almury Consulting, LLC, recognizing that many things have already been done and many more will be done. Some of those things to come will be done as before, some will be done better than before and others will be done worse than before. This blog and consulting firm is for those who choose to do significant things better than before, with the requisite effort needed to improve.
Following from above, we recognize that similarity and difference is subject to individual perspective, and pure originality is very difficult and rare if it exists at all. In the context of all society, many "new" things are combinations of other things; more common novelty is simply an individual learning of something that he or she was not aware of before. We also recognize the inherent frailty of memory, which makes the old new again and leads toward oscillation in many circumstances. Given this frailty, documented best practices are a key starting point when seeking certainty and progress, with the humble understanding that best practices are carefully built up over time. If we carefully follow best practices and existing procedure, we can hope with humility that we are doing as well as our wise predecessors and avoid the error or weakness which led to new understanding and the creation of the best practice.
Scope, environment and culture are next to mind, as they help to handle apparent differences among best practices. What may be a best practice for one group may be a worst practice for another group, from the perspective of the former group and vice versa. This disagreement is often understood by definition of different scopes (e.g. of application), environment or culture. The important thing is to recognize that since few things are new, then there is likely a best practice already, we should know what it is, and we should act according to it in absence of change.
Beyond existing best practice and argument commonly lies observation, or going to the gemba. Visual observation, often in a small group can do wonders for problem solving and ideation. Insights from those who do the task each day are another great source of ideas for improvement: in other words, "ask those who do it most."
At the end of the beginning, it is helpful to note that sometimes the reason why something better has not been done before is simply that we have been too foolish to make the change and make sure it is done. Let us begin.