A fellow out in cyberspace gave some thought to requirements for an iPhone time tracking app, and I made a few comments. While other form factors are in our mid-term plan, we have a ways to go before we are ready to take on that opportunity.

Saturday’s Rocky Mountain News provided rich material for management practitioners. The paper reported on the firing and reinstatement of an employee in the Denver Parks and Recreation Department. The reinstatement of the fired employee occurred when management was not able to produce any evidence that the employee had failed to perform, and more shockingly, any evidence that there was any standard or goal to which the employee should strive.

PositiveWare has been repeating for the past five years what some management practitioners have known for decades: The key to maximum performance is positive reinforcement, which in turn comes from an environment where employees know what they are supposed to be working on, why it is important, and how they are doing.

When Mayor Hickenlooper announced his intention to implement performance management in the city, we were very excited and made numerous attempts to reach out to the city, only to be rebuffed by the IT consultants who were in charge of the project. Putting aside the wisdom of putting IT people in charge of people projects, the city failed in its effort to implement a performance management scheme upon the departure of his appointee. The results are painfully obvious.

In fact, the effort by the manager to explain the employee’s goals or how she had failed was pathetic in the extreme.

“Um, basically what you’re, what you’re going to do if, um, if you have, um, a timeline of objectives and delivery dates, and so, um, for us, and I’ll give you an example.

“For us, we have, um, a citywide brochure that comes out, um, four times a year, and so, um, so I’m going back to the session calendar is, ah, you know, why we have those registration dates when, when content is due, what posting is due etcetera, etcetera, and so, so if, um, so if our, um delivery date of the, um, brochure is . . . you know, um . . . February second, that, um, the kind of our targeted places in our neighborhoods, whether it’s schools, whether it’s churches, businesses, etcetera etcetera, that, um, that part of the prioritization is, one, you know, who’s going to be responsible for that.”

Imagine instead if the manager had been able to refer to the activity report for the employee instead. If the employee had really not performed, that would be obvious. But even better, with clear goals, it is unlikely the situation would have escalated to this point.

PositiveWare 2.3 and 2.3.1 introduced several much-requested new features,
improving both the usability and scalability of the system:

• Bill Editor - make adjustments to line items in client bills
• New, more user-friendly Setup screen
• Status indicator provides three customizable status levels for Plans
• Archive plans and billable plans without any data loss

Talking with some customers it seems that some of them have what I would call “Billing Reticence”, an unnatural and unhealthy aversion to getting their bills out. Since PositiveWare has eliminated the technical and administrative difficulty of putting a bill together there has to be something else at play that keeps users from getting their bills out.

Here are some thoughts and tips to make you more comfortable with billing.

Before anything, now (I mean right now) get your calendar out and make an appointment with yourself to do your bills. Keep the appointment.

A new freelancer coming from a job is likely to be a little uncomfortable with the change in the magnitude of dollars at play. In the extreme case of a client who buys all your time, and perhaps that of one or more subs, you could be looking at an invoice that is ten times your last paycheck. So how do you handle a big invoice? For starters, the same as a small one.
-Make sure it is accurate, for rate, time and time period.
-Make sure it has the level of detail the client expects. (Don’t know what the client expects? Ask them. They will appreciate the question.)
-Including expenses? Make sure to supply supporting documentation. Here’s how to track expenses in PositiveWare.
-Make sure to include payment information (who to pay) and term (when to pay)

Ok, so the invoice is together. Why not send it?
-Is the client going to be surprised? This is never good. The best way to handle this is to call the client ahead of time, with a bit of a warning. Nobody likes surprises.
-Do you not deserve to be paid? A few of us out there are so self-deprecating and self-effacing that we don’t really think we deserve it. A little bibliotherapy is in order. Try The Virtue of Selfishness or perhaps Free Agent Nation.
-Don’t know how to handle the money? Solve this problem when you have the money, because until you send the bill you don’t have the problem.
-Think you’re above handling money, or in it for the art? Seriously? Get a job at the Post Office and pursue art as a hobby, because this probably won’t work for you.

Next Time: I hate tracking time, so my bills are late.

At my Strategic Coach meeting on Tuesday one of the activities was to list the largest frustrations, and develop action plans for eliminating these frustrations. After not a lot of reflection I found that I was frustrated by the fact that not all the vendors drink the Kool-Aid.

What I mean by this is that if I am working with a firm that is within my target market, I expect them to use PositiveWare and champion it. If they find they can’t do this why are they taking my money? It is sort of as if I published a newspaper and the ink supplier read the competing newspaper.

Is this churlish?

So I have an action plan to ensure that my vendors are true believers, or are gone.

Verne Harnish’s latest newsletter mentions an interesting website called Stickk that is intended to allow you to create your own reinforcement system. Set up a goal, commit an amount of your own money that you will pay yourself for accomplishing the goal and off you go. The goal can be anything you choose.

If you don’t achieve the goal, the money is forfeit, and goes to whomever you designate, such as a charity, your ex-wife, and so on.

So is this positive or negative reinforcement? Well, it all depends on whether is causes the behavior to repeat. If you use the site once, lose money, and don’t return, negative reinforcement. Use the site, lose money, return and try again, positive reinforcement for site usage. Use the site, accomplish your goal, don’t return, negative reinforcement for site usage and goal accomplishment. Use the site, accomplish your goal, return again, positive reinforcement for site usage.

So it seems as if the reinforcement scheme is keyed to the website and not the goal. Which is what I would want if I built that website. And in fact it is the exact issue we have faced at PositiveWare. Users completing tasks or actions don’t necessarily get reinforcement from the software. Users have suggested that we embed rewards in the application, so that the 23rd user completing a task gets a movie ticket or lottery tickets or whatever.

A friend compliments me on my eupeptic attitude.
From Merriam Webster:

1) Of, relating to, or having good digestion

2) Cheerful, Optimistic

I hope he’s referring to the second definition.

One of the initial motives for building PositiveWare was to create a single environment where a user could increase employee engagement through collaboration, alignment, and accountability.

But to use the Cricket vernacular, accountability is the sticky wicket. Software can’t make a manager hold an employee accountable, it can only create an environment where this is possible.  A SMART goal is important, but in the absence of consequences it is probably irrelevant.

I was reminded of this today working with one of our clients. I heard him say, if only I can show this employee what I really want this time (as opposed to the last 5 quarters where the employee was also shown what was really wanted) I know that he will execute.

Well, sorry, it just isn’t so. The software shows in vivid detail what is done and not done. No amount of rationalizing can change the facts. But a manager can rationalize himself out of taking the very serious step of letting the employee go.

Reading West With The Night by Beryl Markham, I came across this great quote:

“If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”

I quote this hoping that PositiveWare can be part of your greatness.