I am Mad as Hell and I am not Going to Take it Anymore!!!

Has the title of this blog gotten your attention? The title is a key line from the 1976 movie "Network" where the news anchor gets a large portion of the population yelling this from their windows to vent frustration with things. So what does this movie have to do with the chip business? Read on to find out how the famous line from this movie forms a strategy that will guide you towards making a difference in your work situation.

The level of frustration I feel on all levels of the semiconductor new product organizations are at an all time high. It's pent up, steaming and being held close to the chest; further weakening the possibility for solutions. Issues are being aired around the lunch table with great ease, plausible solutions are being generated and then people go back to work, sitting silently in the great wasteland of sameness!

Here's the deal. Things are exactly the way you tolerate them to be. There is a lot of acceptance of clearly negative sources of impact going on, and that's the problem at large. I read a book review in the newspaper paper this past week titled "Your kids are your own fault" by Larry Winget. I have not read the book, only the synopsis. Interestingly, this title made me think long and hard about the situation with project execution, outsourcing and the working climate we have today in the semi industry. Fact - we are personally responsible for creating and maintaining our work situation as it is today.

If something is impacting your ability to perform your tasks and it's ticking you off, own it as your problem to be resolved and take the initiative to make it go away! Sorry people, but that's the only way things are going to change for you. Stop waiting for someone else to notice how something is impacting your ability to execute and fix it for you. It's just not going to happen that way, so stop with the empty whining and take action. I have talked with a lot of people on new product teams and the way I see it is there are a lot of them waiting for someone to remove a barrier that is personally impacting them.

Everyone wishes things were different. The business manager wishes new products would meet expectations for delivery timing, quality and functionality - just be predictable. Designers wish the tools and flows gave them what they needed, always. The test people want to be involved earlier in products. The product people wish designers would communicate better. The project manager wishes people would do what they said they would do. The wish list goes on and on. What's on your list?

Get mad, mad as hell about what's causing you grief on projects. Feel the impact of the problem on your activities and the sleep you lose over it. Stop accepting the situation as it is, you don't need to take it anymore. Now here's the big step - take that frustration burning within and own the source of it. Make it your personal objective to eliminate it as a source of aggravation. Stop falling into the sameness trap of making sure the problem is not yours by creating justification to transfer ownership; remember you are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. This one is yours!

I want things to be Different, but I don’t want to Change

Everyone has something they would like to see different, some aspect of the development process that they view is causing continuous disruption in new product releases. Reflect on your businesses ability to react to near term project execution crisis. Like most, the ability to resolve an immediate roadblock that is impacting a specific project is quite impressive. The team rallies to action in a high-energy fashion, makes a decision and moves on to a solution very quickly.

Now consider an issue that is systemic in nature, in that it’s omnipresent and has the ability to disrupt a wide range of projects. How’s the energy for resolution in this situation? I am sure it lacks the vigor that is observed for a project specific emergency. The persistent systemic execution barriers routinely take a back seat to the highly visible, project specific issues that crop up and block a project. Interestingly, the more pervasive problems are generally much more of an execution hindrance than the high intensity, bang on the table and fix it now project glitches that demand immediate solutions.

There is an interesting dynamic going on between these two different scenarios. In the case of a project specific problem, the team only needs a specific one-time solution to a highly visible problem; a perceived permanent operational change is not expected. For systemic execution problems the issues tend to be insidious and behind the scenes, often not displaying an obvious specific project related fire to be put out. Operational change is assumed to be the solution in this situation.

A new product team rallies to high profile fires very well, a concept that could be leveraged to deal with the more pervasive issues; the ones that are subtly, although more significantly impacting project execution. Does that mean solutions to the systemic issues are as close as setting them ablaze, thereby attaining much needed attention? That’s partially true with one very important caveat to consider. Solutions to systemic execution blockages will also involve “changes” in core processes and procedures, something that is rare in dealing with project specific issues. Individuals generally repel change, unless the change is elsewhere and will not directly impact them. Where are you and your organization with respect to seeking, owning and accepting real change?

Here is the most important concept when dealing with change. Most individuals will internally believe in the statement “I want things to be different, but I don’t want to change.” This is a stark reality that must be considered and mitigated. Once the realization of a potential personal change takes place, individuals will pull back and solution energy will fade. This fact leaves most organizations trapped in a mode of “tweaking” their new product development process, with results that provide unimpressive incremental improvements.

Where dramatic improvement to new product time to revenue is an expectation, real change is the only enabler that will produce this level of results. This is possible only when organizations stop fooling themselves that they can “tweak” their way to significantly better new product revenue and begin a grass roots assault on the “historic” ways of doing things. Anything less is a smoke screen to protect individuals while placing the organization at risk of a slide towards extinction. Terminal sameness can be successfully reversed, if properly diagnosed and treated in time.

The Antidote for Terminal Sameness

Everyone has something they would like to see different, some aspect of the development process that they know is causing continuous disruption in new product releases. The frustration is obvious; the major steps to make it go away rarely occur, often smothered by a battery of excuses that keep a complete solution just out of reach. The fact is that a solution that involves significant change enables the most basic instinct – fear. That unchecked fear is keeping significant new product execution improvements from being realized.

Does the following statement reflect your reality? “I want things to be different, but I don’t want to change.” If you are in alignment with the majority of the population then this is indeed a core belief of yours, although one that is definitely not publicly disclosed. This sentiment is the primary reason that new product execution stays pretty much the same. Maintaining an emotional bond to the comfortable known keeps valuable change out of the picture.

New product execution remains in a status quo state not because of technical reasons, but because of a deep-rooted fear based anchor. Organizations are technically brilliant while failing at execution, simply because they are dinosaurs when it comes to engaging real change. If things are to be significantly different, there needs to be significant change! There is no other way; recognize that, deal with it and move forward.

Harsh? Absolutely! Many organizations are perplexed by their inability to significantly improve new product efforts. In reality they have fallen into the pit of terminal sameness and are unable see the situation as anything but one of maintaining the status quo. The execution problems have consumed them. They are unable to get enough of a grasp on the big picture to see the major root issues that are siphoning off the teams productivity. So yes, I am being harsh, only in the hopes of jarring some brave souls to take a realistic view of the fears of change that are holding them back.

To the right is a list of the most likely fear based reasons that keep people from changing. See them for the de-motivating fears that they are and move on. Risk-averse types will see these as solid barriers and continue to thrive on crisis management as the norm. Risk-takers will see these as hurdles to be dealt with, knowing a better way is on the other side. Where are you?

Project execution stagnation is the norm today and the contenders for solutions have been an ever-increasing emphasis on the technical tools and methods for tweaking them to a higher productivity. How’s that been working out? Tweaking keeps the fear of change in check, while also failing to provide solutions that make a substantial impact in time to revenue. When ready to make a real difference it will require a real change, not a tweak.

It’s imperative to honestly ask yourself if you are keeping things the same out of a fear of change. If this is the case you are unknowingly suppressing substantial improvements, so be real in your personal assessment. If you want things to be better, really better, then you along with everyone else will need to embrace change. The new mantra for your organization must be “I want project execution to be significantly better and I am ready to accept substantial change as a solution”. There is no shortcut! Fail to embrace change and your new product execution will continue to be consumed by terminal sameness, expect nothing different.

“Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made.” -- Robert H. Schuller

Tools are “a” Solution, not “the” Solution

The tools we have available today for producing chips have advanced a long way over the years. There is no question of the tremendous value they bring to new product development (NPD) teams. Even with all this capability at our disposal there are frequent problems in meeting new product revenue plans. How can this be?

Maybe our expectations have reached an unhealthy dependency on tools for project management, design, verifications, validation and even overall product management. We are a proud family of techno-geeks and it is our nature to depend on technology, a reliance that is blinding us to non-technical root issues. Maybe it is time to consider the possibility of gaps between what technology provides and the needs of the team. When a problem has shown itself during a project, how often is it pinned on the tools or the improper inputs to a tool? How long will we continue blaming tools and then wonder why a predictable path to new product revenue remains out of reach?

If projects have systemic and repeating barriers to predictable execution then there is something missing. There are issues just out of view that are not being addressed. In situations like this consider that the team members are not getting what they need to be individually successful. This unseen gap is rarely about a tool, but a lack in information such as project requirements, individual requirements, and deliverable expectations to name a few. Gaining insight into the individual success deficiencies that are quietly siphoning the teams effectiveness is essential.

How do you find them? Ask each member of your NPD team the following question in a one on one setting: "What changes in deliverables to you or additional information would improve your ability to complete your tasks?" Now learn by listening and “hearing” the answer. Continue digging deeper until you believe the root issue has been uncovered. Address what has been learned. This is an example of “Plain Old Management Style” (POMS) at work; no tool or methodology will provide the wealth of information that can be learned by this simple technique.

New product projects are not only about managing schedules, risk, technology, tools, budgets and data; they must also include management of the most variable, unpredictable and challenging component of all - the people. Recognize this and new product opportunity will flourish, deny this and become a dinosaur entombed in technology. New product execution excellence is a people thing and practicing a “Plain Old Management Style” is certain to produce positive impact, where a pure reliance on tools has not.