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Hello everyone - I recently started O3s (2nd week) as a new manager, although I've been around here in one form or another since 2005.  I've got a situation I'd like advice on - should I shorten O3s during critical work periods?

At the end of our project cycles, we go out to a customer location for a system startup, a go-live.  During these times, work hours go way up.  18+ hour days are not unheard of, although the average is probably in the 12-18 hour range.  When you get off, you grab something to eat, drive back to the hotel and crash until the alarm clock goes off and  you start it again. 

My concern is that a 1/2 hour O3 in the middle of all this is too much, is distracting and takes away from the employee getting work done.  There will be time later for relationships, this is the time to focus and work.  I don't want to stop entirely, so I'm considering shortening O3s when someone is on site for a go-live.  Potential email below, your thoughts are appreciated

Brian

Team -

When we started one-on-ones, I said that we would adjust things as we went along.  One need adjustment has become very apparent to me.  When you are on site for a go-live, we will shorten the one-on-one to a 2-3 minute call to check if there is anything critical needed - we will still have the call, but it will be quick.  Of course, if you want or need a break, I'm willing to talk longer, but I believe that 30 minutes during a go-live is too long to take away from your time.

Your thoughts are always appreciated.  I don't want to stop the calls entirely, so I think this will be a good way to make sure we're still in touch, but not impact your go-live.

 

maura's picture
Training Badge

I tend to agree with you, but I'm making a few assumptions. I assume:

  1. they are onsite for a week or less, and afterwards they return to their normally scheduled O3's.  If the installs last longer than that, I'd want to make sure you both had alternate ways to share information and work together, before I considered disrupting the O3's.
  2. that you are available during those 18 hour days, if they need to bring you up to speed on urgent situations as they occur.
  3. and that they are generally keeping you in the loop on progress and issues through reporting, emails, or whatever. 

If you have the reporting and lines of communication in place, and they are only there for a week or so, then respecting their time and the needs of the customer makes sense to me. 

When your staff are at a customer site during go-live, their primary focus should be on the customer and getting them up and running, and taking a half hour away from the tasks at hand could be disruptive to the install.  So from that standpoint, I see no harm in telling them  you understand that they need every spare minute, and a 2-3 minute update is fine for THAT week, if that's all the time they can spare. I'd make it known that you have the whole 30 minutes free in case they do need to use the full time though. Then when they return, it's back to business as usual.  Maybe your email ends up looking more like this:

Team -

When we started one-on-ones, I said that we would adjust things as we went along.  One adjustment has become apparent to me.  When you are on site for a go-live, your primary responsibility is to the customer, and I understand that taking a half hour away from the tasks at hand can be disruptive.  If you are onsite for a go-live, you now have the option to shorten the one-on-one to a 2-3 minute call to check if there is anything critical needed - we will still have the call, but it can be quick.  Of course, if you want or need to use the entire 30 minutes, that is fine as well.  We will resume the normal One on One format once you return.

bflynn's picture

They are on site for weeks at a time.  The last go-live I helped out with, I was there for 6 weeks.  The project lead was there for 4 months.

This would usually not be my project, although it could be.  If I'm there, communciations and relationships building will happen, but probably not in an O3 situation.  This is a matrix organizaiton (in the matrix, no one can hear you scream).  The people report to me administratively, but will work for a project manager.

I'm keeping the short call for critical items, such as "hey, I don't have a paycheck" or "what's our mental health policy like?"  I am always available and I will also be at work during the normal work hours.

Brian

 

timrutter's picture

Brian,

Instead of the 2-3 minutes, give them their 10 minutes and cut your 20. You'll be sending a message that their 10 minutes is theirs and not yours, but as their workload is through the roof, you're willing to scarifice your part for that period when thay are on site.

They have the agenda, you have the one-on-one and 10 minutes in a day is not a big ask of them. If they are under as much pressure as you suggest, 2-3 minutes will be too short to judge whether they are coping with the heat or not.

Tim

bflynn's picture

Nice Tim.  I will word it that way in the email and my expectation is that most people will take 30 seconds with their agenda.  Whether or not someone can take the heat is something we're going to find out one way or another - this heat is part of the job, so if they can't or if they say it's too hard, it's telling me something different than what they expected.

Mark's picture
Admin Role Badge

Keep them at 30 minutes.  I've been in all kinds of critical work situations: go-lives, installs, IPOs, road shows, etc., etc.  I've never felt that that was the time to cut back on O3s.

In an 18 hour day, there's all kinds of time for doing O3s.  I've watched teams work 18 hour days in critical situations, and they have about as much down time as they do in a normal day.  Not saying they have twice as much, but they have AS much.  That means there's time.

We have lieutenants in the Army and Marines who during their entire time in Iraq, they did one on ones.  Pretty busy over there, and surely more stressful.  Plus, that long in high stress (which is debate-able) frankly begs for a manager to give a direct a structured break from the pace. 

I would suspect that those one on ones will be about the install, and issues, and project-related stuff, but you never know.  You can listen, and you can probably see things others can't if you're not down in the weeds.  Listen to the cast: One on Ones - Work or Personal.  That might help.

I would keep them at 30 minutes...and in fact, have, when working with CEOs in IPOs.  Busy time there too.

Mark

 

bflynn's picture

Didn't catch this until now - I understand what you're saying.  We're in a matrix organization, so I'm outside the project.  I'm pretty convinced that this isn't the time to manage, it's the time to execute.  I did shorten it and still got a fair amout of stress dump from them, so we were longer than 10 minutes - but not at 30.  Even then I got an angry call from the PM wanting to know why I was bugging "his" guys.  I will try to keep them at a longer time frame for the future.

To use your Iraq analogy - I'm not the Lt leading the troops in battle, I'm the quartermaster back stateside calling into the war zone to talk about how things are going.  There can be some good things that come out of it, but the amount of good is difficult to justify.  I don't know if that makes a difference, but I know if the supply guy had called me while deployed, I wouldn't have had a lot of good things to say about or to him.

Management has never been strongly practiced (never practiced at all?) here, so I see these as another way that people don't understand.  I gave my manager a summary of promotional development of my directs and she seemed shocked that I knew these things.  My response was - well I asked them about it.

I will listen to the cast.  I've fallen behind on them over the past couple of years.  The basics still stick with me and they're working, but I'm sure I'm short on some of the details.

Mark's picture
Admin Role Badge

Your manager was shocked that you knew something that managers are supposed to know. That's a great moment, no?

Nicely done.

Mark