Dan Ramey

AI or not, great advice for everyone!

In my forensic accounting world, we have to take complex fraud schemes and break them down to very basic terms and visuals for the attorneys to be able to present to a jury that has never seen a fraud and doesn't have advanced knowledge of accounting books and records. My "KPI" for my report and visuals is, can a person without a litigation or accounting background, read my report and study my visuals, and tell me with precision what happened, how it happened, and how much was involved. If they have to ask me too many questions, it's back to the drawing board to work on simplifying the report and updating the visuals. KISS principle!!

One of the keys in successful delegation is to ensure the employee has the capability to successfully complete the assignment. That doesn't mean they can accomplish it without guidance, direction, and feedback, but do they have the internal motivation and intellectual capital to be successful. I always consider if the task will give them another management-level learning to advance their career and prepare them for their next promotion. I also want the delegated task to be a stretch for them to successfully complete.

Part of the success factor is having the right people on the bus. It is critical, for organizations to thrive and drive positive change, organization leaders and process owners have to be open to change when it is thought through and presented as the next step in progress in keeping with the strategic plan. Properly done SWOT analysis shows that preparation for that next step toward executing on the strategic plan.

As with any application change / upgrade, change management is probably the most important aspect of the project. Understanding the impact of the architecture change and its impact on the organization is absolutely critical. Keep in mind, people are usually not comfortable with change, therefore build that into your project management and look to team members who are particularly astute at change management to help make the entire project a success.

All great suggestions. Use the one(s) that work best for you! My go to action items when I need to focus: (1) turn off the sound on my phone (except for family notifications on our "special" app we use (2) shut down Outlook (3) make a short-term To Do list for that particular task - try to keep individual tasks within a 20-45 minute window (4) mark through completed items - show yourself your accomplishments (5) take a break (exercise) to get some new energy (6) find an appropriate reward for your accomplishments