CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Guess Gossip Commedy of Errors Murphy's Law
Lessons Learned, Common Business
Not Enough Time for Conventional Management
Prepare Memo to Reconcile Bid Quantities on
Not Enough Time to Read and Write
Productivity Meetings Capuring Record What Did We Say, Hear, See, Wha

0908 -
0908 -    ..
0909 - Summary/Objective
0910 -
091001 - Follow up ref SDS 9 5839, ref SDS 7 0000.
091002 -
091003 - During the meeting yesterday with Max, Leonard, Tom and Mike on
091004 - launching the Richmond project, the Chief of the Engineering Division,
091005 - and the Principal Engineer came into Max's office, interrupting an
091006 - ongoing meeting, to discuss figures on the pay quantities in the bid
091007 - documents, per the record at ref SDS 9 5839.
091013 -  ..
091014 - Ken advised that Mike had sent an email to Chris saying a recent
091015 - survey shows 200K - 300K more quantity than in the published documents
091016 - due to shoaling since the survey was done that was used to develop the
091017 - bid quantities.  It was unclear from Ken's explanation whether the
091018 - specs disclose shoaling that can be expected during the work.  The
091019 - Construction Launch Schedule includes an activity BBDB which calls for
091020 - CON OPS Construction Manager to review the plans and specs, and so
091021 - that review should establish how shoaling is handled.
091023 -  ..
091024 - This, however, became a heated discussion about who said what to whom
091025 - on past battles that did not relate to the issue at hand, similar to
091026 - PG&E on 941209. ref SDS 1 7777; Chips on 950228, ref SDS 2 1994, again
091027 - at Chips reported on 960721, ref SDS 3 0896, and more recently at
091028 - USACE on 961218. ref SDS 4 5790
091030 -  ..
091031 - Leonard, as RE, said he wants to avoid the dispute that occurred on
091032 - the Oakland Harbor project by applying "Lessons Learned" to account
091033 - for annual shoaling in the bid quantities.
091035 -  ..
091036 - Chris and Ken explained reasoning under which Mike would withdraw his
091037 - memo.  They showed Mike handwritten calcualations with some
091038 - information that was lined out, and arrows pointing to various notes
091039 - in the margin.
091041 -  ..
091042 - Mike said he did not follow Chris' explanation.
091044 -  ..
091045 - Max briefly examined the handwritten calculations and noted that he
091046 - could not draw from this information conclusions represented by Ken
091047 - and Chris during the meeting today.
091049 -  ..
091050 - Max noted that he had told someone a year ago about the need to adjust
091051 - survey quantities for shoaling.  He could not point to his record of
091052 - this communication.  Max then suggested that Engineering Division (Ken
091053 - and Chris) prepare a memo formalizing the handwritten material
091054 - presented today and provide some narrative explaining the differences
091055 - that reconcile Mike's figures with those in the bid documents.
091057 -  ..
091058 - Chris said he does not have enough time to prepare a memo, and that it
091059 - would be fast and easy for Mike to withdraw his memo.
091060 -
091061 -     [On 970910 report that managers do not have enough time to think.
091062 -     ref SDS 13 3479]
091064 -  ..
091065 - Ken wants Max to direct Mike to send another email saying differences
091066 - cited in the first email were resolved by the discussion this morning.
091067 -
091068 -     [On 970723 John Azeveda did not have enough time to obtain closure
091069 -     on issues in a lawsuit on Oakland Harbor project about differing
091070 -     quantities. see ref SDS 12 2026]
091072 -      ..
091073 -     [On 981027 government paid $30M to settle $67M in claims on a $42M
091074 -     contract. ref SDS 14 9152]
091076 -  ..
091077 - On Oakland, a spreadsheet analysis of the Contractor's quantity
091078 - calculations submitted on 961213 identified specific variances which
091079 - could be investigated to reconcile original quantities. ref SDS 6 7777
091081 -  ..
091082 - This exchange today, exemplifies a convnetional "knowledge" method
091083 - that can be aptly summarized as management by:
091084 -
091085 -                     "guess and gossip"
091086 -
091087 -     ...where people are trying to get someone to agree to change a
091088 -     position without anyone looking at original sources.
091090 -      ..
091091 -     An example of a different aspect of the same problem occurred on
091092 -     970110. ref SDS 5 2487
091094 -  ..
091095 - "Guess and Gossip" first came into the record on 970323 for Herb
091096 - Cheong's memo that is part of Appendix A in the District's report on
091097 - Communication Metrics. ref SDS 8 6217, and ref SDS 10 6734
091098 -
091099 -     [On 981223 Tom Keesling submitted email to HQUSACE citing this
091100 -     problem as a reason for using Communication Metrics to improve
091101 -     management. ref SDS 15 0972]
091103 -  ..
091104 - This concept is presented in the body of the Communication Metrics
091105 - report, ref DRP 1 3649, received on 970418. ref SDS 11 3368.
091106 -
091107 -     [On 020504 study shows professional standards for communication
091108 -     practices and requirements on good management specified in FAR,
091109 -     ISO, Health Care, Covey, Drucker, law, contract notice provisions,
091110 -     and 2,000 years of literacy for contemporaneous documentation for
091111 -     alignment and feedback to work intelligently, quickly, and
091112 -     accurately are ignored in government, business, health care, every
091113 -     sector. ref SDS 16 NS6F
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